Which to use
“backed” and “bakes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,577
- “backed” frequency rank
- #40,135
- “bakes” frequency rank
- 44712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | backed | bakes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of back | third-person singular simple present indicative of bake |
Where the eye mixes backed and bakes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between backed and bakes
A purely visual mix-up. backed (/bækt/) and bakes (/beɪks/) 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 44712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
backed is recorded at frequency rank #4,577, classified as averb, pronounced /bækt/. bakes is at rank #40,135, tagged as averb, pronounced /beɪks/.
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 44712, this pair ranks #228,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of backed vs bakes
Shared letters: abek. Private to "backed": cd. Private to "bakes": s.
"backed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "bakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "backed" and "bakes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "backed" or "bakes"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "backed" and "bakes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "backed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bakes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,055 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "backed" and "bakes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bails vs bakes". 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 #228,055 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.