Which to use
“beat” is a noun and “beaten” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,042
- “beat” frequency rank
- #5,007
- “beaten” frequency rank
- 6049
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | beat | beaten |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A stroke; a blow. | Defeated. |
Where the eye mixes beat and beaten
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beat is /biːt/ while beaten is /ˈbiː.tən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “beat” sits inside “beaten”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
beat is recorded at frequency rank #1,042, classified as anoun, pronounced /biːt/. beaten is at rank #5,007, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbiː.tən/.
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 6049, this pair ranks #512,964 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of beat vs beaten
Shared letters: abet. Private to "beat": -. Private to "beaten": n.
"beat" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "beaten" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC