courtedvscuratedWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,593
“courted” frequency rank
#16,205
“curated” frequency rank
49798
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courted curated
Definition Romantically pursued; wooed. simple past and past participle of curate

Letter map: courted vs curated

Shared letters muted; letters that set courted and curated apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
courted
7 ch
curated

Role in the sentence - courted and curated

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: courted is anadjective and curatedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courted is recorded at frequency rank #33,593, classified as anadj. curated is at rank #16,205, tagged as averb, pronounced /kjʊˈɹeɪtɪd/.

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 49798, this pair ranks #180,163 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of courted vs curated

Shared letters: cdertu. Private to "courted": o. Private to "curated": a.

"courted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "curated" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courtedccourted · coruted · couretd · courrted · courtde · courtedd · courtted · coutred
  • curatedccurated · cruated · cuarted · curaetd · curatde · curatedd · curatted · currated

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courted" and "curated" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courted" is an adjective and "curated" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "courted" vs "curated" - which ranks higher?
"curated" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,205 in our English list, against #33,593 for "courted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "courted" and "curated".

  • Full dictionary entry for "courted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "curated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,163 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courted" and "curated" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courted vs crusted". 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 #180,163 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