Which to use
“danced” and “darted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,527
- “danced” frequency rank
- #48,174
- “darted” frequency rank
- 59701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | danced | darted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of dance | simple past and past participle of dart |
Where the eye mixes danced and darted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: danced vs darted
A purely visual mix-up. danced (/dɑːnst/) and darted (/ˈdɑɹtɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
danced is recorded at frequency rank #11,527, classified as averb, pronounced /dɑːnst/. darted is at rank #48,174, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɑɹtɪd/.
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 59701, this pair ranks #104,570 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of danced vs darted
Shared letters: ade. Private to "danced": cn. Private to "darted": rt.
"danced" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "darted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "danced" for "darted" ever safe?
Frequency check: "danced" vs "darted" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "danced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "darted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,570 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "danced" and "darted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "darned vs darted". 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 #104,570 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.