# barbed vs barred

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### barbed
*adjective · IPA /bɑː(ɹ)bd/ · frequency rank #20,294*
Having barbs.

### barred
*verb · IPA /ˈbɑː(ɹ)d/ · frequency rank #10,988*
simple past and past participle of bar

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/barbed-vs-barred