cookedvscopiedWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,950
“cooked” frequency rank
#9,725
“copied” frequency rank
15675
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cooked copied
Definition Prepared by cooking. simple past and past participle of copy

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cooked and copied apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
cooked
6 ch
copied

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

cooked and copied form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15675, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cooked is recorded at frequency rank #5,950, classified as anadj, pronounced /kʊkt/. copied is at rank #9,725, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɑpid/.

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 15675, this pair ranks #462,519 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

cooked#5,950
copied#9,725

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cooked" and "copied" be used interchangeably?
No, "cooked" and "copied" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering cooked vs copied

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “cooked”; for a verb, it's “copied”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cooked” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list