Which to use
“battered” is a verb and “battery” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,848
- “battered” frequency rank
- #2,877
- “battery” frequency rank
- 19725
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | battered | battery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of batter | A device used to power electric devices, consisting of one or more electrically connected electrochemical cells or (archaically) electrostatic cells. |
Where the eye mixes battered and battery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between battered and battery
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: battered is /ˈbætəd/ while battery is /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
battered is recorded at frequency rank #16,848, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbætəd/. battery is at rank #2,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbæt.(ə)ɹi/.
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 19725, this pair ranks #436,147 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of battered vs battery
Shared letters: abert. Private to "battered": d. Private to "battery": y.
"battered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "battery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "battered" and "battery" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "battered" vs "battery" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "battered" and "battery" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "battered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "battery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,147 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "battered" and "battery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "battered vs buttered". 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 #436,147 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.