condvsconnedWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#44,131
“cond” frequency rank
#35,229
“conned” frequency rank
79360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cond conned
Definition Clipping of conditional. simple past and past participle of con

Same sound, different letters: cond vs conned

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. cond runs 4 letters (CVCC) against conned's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cond
6 ch
conned

Same sound, different spelling - cond / conned

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cond and conned carry the same recorded pronunciation, /kɒnd/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cond is recorded at frequency rank #44,131, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɒnd/. conned is at rank #35,229, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɒnd/.

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 79360, this pair ranks #22,287 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cond vs conned

Shared letters: cdno. Private to "cond": -. Private to "conned": e.

"cond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "conned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cond ← ccond · cnod · codn · condd · connd · ocnd
  • conned ← cconned · cnoned · coned · conend · connde · connedd · ocnned

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cond" and "conned" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cond" is an adjective and "conned" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cond" or "conned"?
"conned" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,229 in our English list, against #44,131 for "cond". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,287 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cond" and "conned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cond vs cuny". 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 #22,287 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