blackedvsblackestWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,571
“blacked” frequency rank
#42,030
“blackest” frequency rank
62601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blacked blackest
Definition Colored black. superlative form of black: most black

Where the eye mixes blacked and blackest

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. blacked runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against blackest's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
blacked
8 ch
blackest

Look-alike desk: blacked vs blackest

A purely visual mix-up. blacked (/blækt/) and blackest (/blækəst/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blacked is recorded at frequency rank #20,571, classified as anadj, pronounced /blækt/. blackest is at rank #42,030, tagged as anadj, pronounced /blækəst/.

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 62601, this pair ranks #87,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blacked vs blackest

Shared letters: abcekl. Private to "blacked": d. Private to "blackest": st.

"blacked" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "blackest" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blacked ← balcked · bblacked · blaccked · blacekd · blackde · blackedd · blackked · blakced
  • blackest ← balckest · bblackest · blacckest · blacekst · blackesst · blackestt · blackets · blackkest

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blacked" and "blackest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/blækt/ versus /blækəst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "blacked" or "blackest"?
"blacked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,571 in our English list, against #42,030 for "blackest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blacked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blackest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blacked" and "blackest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blacker vs blackest". 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 #87,573 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