Which to use
“cushion” is a noun and “cushioned” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,316
- “cushion” frequency rank
- #45,871
- “cushioned” frequency rank
- 59187
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cushion | cushioned |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support. | simple past and past participle of cushion |
Where the eye mixes cushion and cushioned
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. cushion runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against cushioned's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cushion and cushioned
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cushion is /ˈkʊʃən/ while cushioned is /ˈkʊʃənd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cushion” sits inside “cushioned”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cushion is recorded at frequency rank #13,316, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊʃən/. cushioned is at rank #45,871, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkʊʃənd/.
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 59187, this pair ranks #107,760 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cushion vs cushioned
Shared letters: chinosu. Private to "cushion": -. Private to "cushioned": de.
"cushion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "cushioned" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cushion" and "cushioned" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "cushion" or "cushioned" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cushion" and "cushioned" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cushion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cushioned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,760 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cushion" and "cushioned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cushioned vs cushions". 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 #107,760 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.