beatenvsbeltedTell them apart

Quick tell: beaten is a adjective, belted is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“beaten” is an adjective and “belted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,007
“beaten” frequency rank
#36,884
“belted” frequency rank
41891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beaten belted
Definition Defeated. simple past and past participle of belt

Where the eye mixes beaten and belted

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
beaten
6 ch
belted

Look-alike desk: beaten vs belted

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beaten is /ˈbiː.tən/ while belted is /ˈbɛltɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beaten is recorded at frequency rank #5,007, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbiː.tən/. belted is at rank #36,884, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbɛltɪd/.

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 41891, this pair ranks #254,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of beaten vs belted

Shared letters: bet. Private to "beaten": an. Private to "belted": dl.

"beaten" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "belted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beatenbaeten · bbeaten · beaetn · beatenn · beatne · beatten · betaen · ebaten
  • beltedbbelted · beletd · bellted · beltde · beltedd · beltted · betled · bleted

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beaten" and "belted" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beaten" is an adjective and "belted" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "beaten" vs "belted" - which ranks higher?
"beaten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,007 in our English list, against #36,884 for "belted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "beaten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "belted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #254,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "beaten" and "belted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "belted 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 #254,192 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list