Which to use
“away” is an adverb and “awed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #214
- “away” frequency rank
- #45,213
- “awed” frequency rank
- 45427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | away | awed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | From a place, hence. | simple past and past participle of awe |
Where the eye mixes away and awed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses away with awed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: away is /əˈweɪ/ while awed is /ɔːd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
away is recorded at frequency rank #214, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈweɪ/. awed is at rank #45,213, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɔːd/.
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 45427, this pair ranks #221,352 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of away vs awed
Shared letters: aw. Private to "away": y. Private to "awed": de.
"away" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "awed" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "away" and "awed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "away" or "awed"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "away" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "awed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,352 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "away" and "awed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ake vs awed". 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 #221,352 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.