Which to use
“battered” is a verb and “battled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,848
- “battered” frequency rank
- #20,295
- “battled” frequency rank
- 37143
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | battered | battled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of batter | Battlemented. |
Letter map: battered vs battled
Shared letters muted; letters that set battered and battled apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Grammar separator: battered vs battled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: battered is averb and battledanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37143, 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/. battled is at rank #20,295, 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 37143, this pair ranks #297,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of battered vs battled
Shared letters: abdet. Private to "battered": r. Private to "battled": l.
"battered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "battled" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "battered" and "battled" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "battered" vs "battled" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "battered" and "battled". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "battered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "battled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,030 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "battered" and "battled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "battled vs butted". 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 #297,030 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.