candiedvscarriedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,832
“candied” frequency rank
#1,747
“carried” frequency rank
47579
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature candied carried
Definition simple past and past participle of candy simple past and past participle of carry

Where the eye mixes candied and carried

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
candied
7 ch
carried

Visual trap between candied and carried

A purely visual mix-up. candied (/ˈkæn.diːd/) and carried (/ˈkæɹ.ɪd/) 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 47579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

candied is recorded at frequency rank #45,832, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkæn.diːd/. carried is at rank #1,747, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkæɹ.ɪd/.

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 47579, this pair ranks #201,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of candied vs carried

Shared letters: acdei. Private to "candied": n. Private to "carried": r.

"candied" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "carried" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • candiedacndied · cadnied · canddied · candeid · candide · candiedd · canided · canndied
  • carriedacrried · caried · carired · carreid · carride · carriedd · ccarried · craried

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "candied" for "carried" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkæn.diːd/ versus /ˈkæɹ.ɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "candied" or "carried" show up more?
"carried" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,747 in our English list, against #45,832 for "candied". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "candied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carried" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,104 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "candied" and "carried" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caddie vs candied". 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 #201,104 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