Which to use
“carded” is an adjective and “cared” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,234
- “carded” frequency rank
- #5,942
- “cared” frequency rank
- 45176
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carded | cared |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Involving the disentangling of fibers with a carding device. | simple past and past participle of care |
Letter map: carded vs cared
Shared letters muted; letters that set carded and cared apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. carded runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against cared's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: carded vs cared
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: carded is anadjective and caredaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carded is recorded at frequency rank #39,234, classified as anadj. cared is at rank #5,942, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɛɹd/.
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 45176, this pair ranks #223,685 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of carded vs cared
Shared letters: acder. Private to "carded": -. Private to "cared": -.
"carded" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cared" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "carded" and "cared" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "carded" or "cared" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "carded" vs "cared" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "carded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #223,685 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carded" and "cared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carded vs cased". 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 #223,685 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.