Which to use
“barrel” is a noun and “barreled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,391
- “barrel” frequency rank
- #45,219
- “barreled” frequency rank
- 50610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barrel | barreled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum. | Having the specified number of barrels. |
Letter map: barrel vs barreled
Shared letters muted; letters that set barrel and barreled apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. barrel runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against barreled's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - barrel and barreled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: barrel is anoun and barreledanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “barrel” sits inside “barreled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barrel is recorded at frequency rank #5,391, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbæɹ(ə)l/. barreled is at rank #45,219, tagged as anadj.
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 50610, this pair ranks #172,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of barrel vs barreled
Shared letters: abelr. Private to "barrel": -. Private to "barreled": d.
"barrel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "barreled" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barrel" and "barreled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "barrel" or "barreled"?
After this comparison
You've compared "barrel" and "barreled". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "barrel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barreled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barrel" and "barreled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barred vs barreled". 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 #172,717 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.