Which to use
“band” is a noun and “banned” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,262
- “band” frequency rank
- #3,544
- “banned” frequency rank
- 4806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | band | banned |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strip of material used for strengthening or coupling. | simple past and past participle of ban |
Same sound, different letters: band vs banned
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: band and banned carry the same recorded pronunciation, /bænd/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
band is recorded at frequency rank #1,262, classified as anoun, pronounced /bænd/. banned is at rank #3,544, tagged as averb, pronounced /bænd/.
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 4806, this pair ranks #517,603 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of band vs banned
Shared letters: abdn. Private to "band": -. Private to "banned": e.
"band" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "banned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC