Which to use
“battered” is a verb and “bothered” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,848
- “battered” frequency rank
- #7,531
- “bothered” frequency rank
- 24379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | battered | bothered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of batter | Annoyed; irritated. |
Letter map: battered vs bothered
Shared letters muted; letters that set battered and bothered apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - battered and bothered
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: battered is averb and botheredanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24379, 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/. bothered is at rank #7,531, 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 24379, this pair ranks #402,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of battered vs bothered
Shared letters: bdert. Private to "battered": a. Private to "bothered": ho.
"battered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "bothered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "battered" and "bothered" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "battered" vs "bothered" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "battered" and "bothered". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "battered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bothered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "battered" and "bothered" 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 #402,373 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.