Which to use
“breathed” and “breathes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,736
- “breathed” frequency rank
- #19,540
- “breathes” frequency rank
- 41276
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | breathed | breathes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of breathe | third-person singular simple present indicative of breathe |
Where the eye mixes breathed and breathes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. breathed and breathes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: breathed vs breathes
A purely visual mix-up. breathed (/bɹiːðd/) and breathes (/bɹiːðz/) 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 - d in “breathed” becomes s in “breathes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
breathed is recorded at frequency rank #21,736, classified as averb, pronounced /bɹiːðd/. breathes is at rank #19,540, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɹiːðz/.
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 41276, this pair ranks #259,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of breathed vs breathes
Shared letters: abehrt. Private to "breathed": d. Private to "breathes": s.
"breathed" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC · "breathes" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "breathed" and "breathes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "breathed" vs "breathes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "breathed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "breathes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "breathed" and "breathes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beached vs breathed". 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 #259,955 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.