Which to use
“coax” and “coaxed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,368
- “coax” frequency rank
- #47,536
- “coaxed” frequency rank
- 77904
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coax | coaxed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To fondle, kid, pet, tease. | simple past and past participle of coax |
Where the eye mixes coax and coaxed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coax runs 4 letters (CVVC) against coaxed's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: coax vs coaxed
A purely visual mix-up. coax (/kəʊks/) and coaxed (/kəʊkst/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “coax” sits inside “coaxed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coax is recorded at frequency rank #30,368, classified as averb, pronounced /kəʊks/. coaxed is at rank #47,536, tagged as averb, pronounced /kəʊkst/.
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 77904, this pair ranks #26,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coax vs coaxed
Shared letters: acox. Private to "coax": -. Private to "coaxed": de.
"coax" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "coaxed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coax" and "coaxed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "coax" or "coaxed" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "coax" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coaxed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coax" and "coaxed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cased vs coaxed". 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 #26,011 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.