Which to use
“carved” is a verb and “curved” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,521
- “carved” frequency rank
- #9,158
- “curved” frequency rank
- 17679
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carved | curved |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of carve | Having a curve or curves; curving. |
Where the eye mixes carved and curved
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: carved vs curved
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carved is /kɑɹvd/ while curved is /kɜːvd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “carved” becomes u in “curved”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carved is recorded at frequency rank #8,521, classified as averb, pronounced /kɑɹvd/. curved is at rank #9,158, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɜːvd/.
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 17679, this pair ranks #449,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carved vs curved
Shared letters: cderv. Private to "carved": a. Private to "curved": u.
"carved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "curved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "carved" and "curved" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "carved" or "curved"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "carved" and "curved" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "carved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "curved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #449,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carved" and "curved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carved 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 #449,849 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.