commendvscommentedTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,887
“commend” frequency rank
#6,343
“commented” frequency rank
27230
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commend commented
Definition To congratulate or reward. simple past and past participle of comment

Where the eye mixes commend and commented

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
commend
9 ch
commented

Look-alike desk: commend vs commented

A purely visual mix-up. commend (/kəˈmɛnd/) and commented (/ˈkɑmɛntɪd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commend is recorded at frequency rank #20,887, classified as averb, pronounced /kəˈmɛnd/. commented is at rank #6,343, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɑmɛntɪd/.

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 27230, this pair ranks #380,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commend vs commented

Shared letters: cdemno. Private to "commend": -. Private to "commented": t.

"commend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "commented" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commendccommend · cmomend · comemnd · comend · commedn · commendd · commennd · commned
  • commentedccommented · cmomented · comemnted · comented · commenetd · commennted · commentde · commentedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "commend" for "commented" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kəˈmɛnd/ versus /ˈkɑmɛntɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "commend" or "commented"?
"commented" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,343 in our English list, against #20,887 for "commend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "commend" and "commented" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commented" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commend" and "commented" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commend vs comming". 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 #380,536 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