assemblevsassembledTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,182
“assemble” frequency rank
#7,525
“assembled” frequency rank
19707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature assemble assembled
Definition To put together. simple past and past participle of assemble

Where the eye mixes assemble and assembled

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
assemble
9 ch
assembled

Why the eye confuses assemble with assembled

A purely visual mix-up. assemble (/əˈsɛm.bəl/) and assembled (/əˈsɛmbl̩d/) 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 extra letter(s) - “assemble” sits inside “assembled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

assemble is recorded at frequency rank #12,182, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈsɛm.bəl/. assembled is at rank #7,525, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈsɛmbl̩d/.

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 19707, this pair ranks #436,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of assemble vs assembled

Shared letters: abelms. Private to "assemble": -. Private to "assembled": d.

"assemble" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV  ·  "assembled" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • assembleasemble · asesmble · assebmle · assembble · assembel · assemblle · assemlbe · assemmble
  • assembledasembled · asesmbled · assebmled · assembbled · assembeld · assemblde · assembledd · assemblled

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "assemble" and "assembled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/əˈsɛm.bəl/ versus /əˈsɛmbl̩d/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "assemble" or "assembled" show up more?
"assembled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,525 in our English list, against #12,182 for "assemble". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "assemble" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assembled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "assemble" and "assembled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assemble vs assembler". 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 #436,298 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