chalkedvschargedConfusable pair

Quick tell: chalked is a adjective, charged is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chalked” is an adjective and “charged” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,611
“chalked” frequency rank
#2,382
“charged” frequency rank
42993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chalked charged
Definition Written in or covered by chalk. simple past and past participle of charge

Letter map: chalked vs charged

Shared letters muted; letters that set chalked and charged apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
chalked
7 ch
charged

Role in the sentence - chalked and charged

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: chalked is anadjective and chargedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chalked is recorded at frequency rank #40,611, classified as anadj. charged is at rank #2,382, tagged as averb, pronounced /t͡ʃɑːd͡ʒd/.

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 42993, this pair ranks #244,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chalked vs charged

Shared letters: acdeh. Private to "chalked": kl. Private to "charged": gr.

"chalked" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "charged" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chalkedcahlked · cchalked · chakled · chalekd · chalkde · chalkedd · chalkked · challked
  • chargedcahrged · ccharged · chagred · charegd · chargde · chargedd · chargged · charrged

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chalked" for "charged" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chalked" is an adjective and "charged" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "chalked" vs "charged" - which ranks higher?
"charged" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,382 in our English list, against #40,611 for "chalked". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "chalked" vs "charged" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chalked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chalked" and "charged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chalked vs chalky". 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 #244,194 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