beggedvsbeltedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“begged” and “belted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,286
“begged” frequency rank
#36,884
“belted” frequency rank
50170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature begged belted
Definition simple past and past participle of beg simple past and past participle of belt

Where the eye mixes begged and belted

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

6 ch
begged
6 ch
belted

Look-alike desk: begged vs belted

A purely visual mix-up. begged (/bɛɡd/) and belted (/ˈbɛltɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

begged is recorded at frequency rank #13,286, classified as averb, pronounced /bɛɡd/. 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 50170, this pair ranks #176,713 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of begged vs belted

Shared letters: bde. Private to "begged": g. Private to "belted": lt.

"begged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "belted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beggedbbegged · beged · begegd · beggde · beggedd · bgeged · ebgged
  • beltedbbelted · beletd · bellted · beltde · beltedd · beltted · betled · bleted

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "begged" for "belted" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɛɡd/ versus /ˈbɛltɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "begged" vs "belted" - which ranks higher?
"begged" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,286 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "begged" and "belted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "begged" 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 #176,713 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "begged" 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 #176,713 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