appearedvsappeaseConfusable pair

Which to use

“appeared” and “appease” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,551
“appeared” frequency rank
#22,290
“appease” frequency rank
23841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature appeared appease
Definition simple past and past participle of appear To make quiet; to calm; to reduce to a state of peace; to dispel (anger or hatred).

Where the eye mixes appeared and appease

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
appeared
7 ch
appease

Look-alike desk: appeared vs appease

A purely visual mix-up. appeared (/əˈpɪɹd/) and appease (/əˈpiːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

appeared is recorded at frequency rank #1,551, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈpɪɹd/. 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 23841, this pair ranks #406,333 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of appeared vs appease

Shared letters: aep. Private to "appeared": dr. Private to "appease": s.

"appeared" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "appease" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • appearedapeared · apepared · appaered · appeaerd · appearde · appearedd · appearred · apperaed
  • appeaseapease · apepase · appaese · appeaes · appeasse · appesae · papease

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "appeared" for "appease" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/əˈpɪɹd/ versus /əˈpiːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "appeared" vs "appease" - which ranks higher?
"appeared" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,551 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "appeared" and "appease" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "appeared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "appease" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,333 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "appeared" and "appease" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appease vs applause". 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 #406,333 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