Which to use
“appoint” is a verb and “appointed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,163
- “appoint” frequency rank
- #2,511
- “appointed” frequency rank
- 13674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appoint | appointed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To set, fix or determine (a time or place for something such as a meeting, or the meeting itself) by authority or agreement. | Subject to appointment, as opposed to an election. |
Where the eye mixes appoint and appointed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses appoint with appointed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appoint is /əˈpɔɪnt/ while appointed is /əˈpɔɪntɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “appoint” sits inside “appointed”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appoint is recorded at frequency rank #11,163, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈpɔɪnt/. appointed is at rank #2,511, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈpɔɪntɪd/.
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 13674, this pair ranks #474,450 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of appoint vs appointed
Shared letters: ainopt. Private to "appoint": -. Private to "appointed": de.
"appoint" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC · "appointed" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "appoint" and "appointed" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "appoint" or "appointed" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "appoint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "appointed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #474,450 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appoint" and "appointed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appoint vs appointee". 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 #474,450 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.