appealvsappeaseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: appeal is a noun, appease is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“appeal” is a noun and “appease” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,143
“appeal” frequency rank
#22,290
“appease” frequency rank
24433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature appeal appease
Definition An application to a superior court or judge for a decision or order by an inferior court or judge to be reviewed and overturned. To make quiet; to calm; to reduce to a state of peace; to dispel (anger or hatred).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set appeal and appease apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
appeal
7 ch
appease

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appeal is /əˈpiːl/ while appease is /əˈpiːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

appeal is recorded at frequency rank #2,143, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈpiːl/. appease is at rank #22,290, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈpiːz/.

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 24433, this pair ranks #401,993 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of appeal vs appease

Shared letters: aep. Private to "appeal": l. Private to "appease": s.

"appeal" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "appease" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • appealapeal · apepal · appael · appeall · appela · papeal
  • appeaseapease · apepase · appaese · appeaes · appeasse · appesae · papease

Frequency comparison

appeal#2,143
appease#22,290

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "appeal" and "appease" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "appeal" is a noun and "appease" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "appeal" or "appease"?
"appeal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,143 in our English list, against #22,290 for "appease". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering appeal vs appease

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “appeal”; for a verb, it's “appease”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “appeal” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list