Which to use
“belted” and “bolted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,884
- “belted” frequency rank
- #20,857
- “bolted” frequency rank
- 57741
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | belted | bolted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of belt | simple past and past participle of bolt |
Where the eye mixes belted and bolted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. belted and bolted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: belted vs bolted
A purely visual mix-up. belted (/ˈbɛltɪd/) and bolted (/ˈbəʊltɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “belted” becomes o in “bolted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
belted is recorded at frequency rank #36,884, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɛltɪd/. bolted is at rank #20,857, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbəʊltɪd/.
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 57741, this pair ranks #117,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of belted vs bolted
Shared letters: bdelt. Private to "belted": -. Private to "bolted": o.
"belted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "bolted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "belted" for "bolted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "belted" or "bolted"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "belted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #117,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "belted" and "bolted" 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 #117,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.