amendvsamendedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: amend is a verb, amended is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amend” is a verb and “amended” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,854
“amend” frequency rank
#9,847
“amended” frequency rank
23701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amend amended
Definition To make better; improve. That has been modified from a previous form.

Letter map: amend vs amended

Shared letters muted; letters that set amend and amended apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. amend runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against amended's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
amend
7 ch
amended

Role in the sentence - amend and amended

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: amend is averb and amendedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “amend” sits inside “amended”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amend is recorded at frequency rank #13,854, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈmɛnd/. amended is at rank #9,847, tagged as anadj.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 23701, this pair ranks #407,395 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amend vs amended

Shared letters: ademn. Private to "amend": -. Private to "amended": -.

"amend" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "amended" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amend ← aemnd · amedn · amendd · amennd · ammend · amned · maend
  • amended ← aemnded · amedned · amendde · amendded · amendedd · amenedd · amennded · ammended

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amend" and "amended" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amend" is a verb and "amended" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "amend" or "amended"?
"amended" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,847 in our English list, against #13,854 for "amend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "amend" and "amended". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amended" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,395 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amend" and "amended" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aced vs amend". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #407,395 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list