Which to use
“consume” is a verb and “consumed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,528
- “consume” frequency rank
- #7,665
- “consumed” frequency rank
- 16193
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | consume | consumed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To use up. | Full of, exuding (also figuratively). |
Letter map: consume vs consumed
Shared letters muted; letters that set consume and consumed apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Part-of-speech tell for consume / consumed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: consume is averb and consumedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “consume” sits inside “consumed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
consume is recorded at frequency rank #8,528, classified as averb, pronounced /kənˈsjuːm/. consumed is at rank #7,665, tagged as anadj.
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 16193, this pair ranks #459,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of consume vs consumed
Shared letters: cemnosu. Private to "consume": -. Private to "consumed": d.
"consume" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "consumed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "consume" and "consumed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "consume" or "consumed" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "consume" vs "consumed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "consume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "consumed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #459,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "consume" and "consumed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "consumed vs costumed". 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 #459,299 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.