Which to use
“darned” and “downed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,316
- “darned” frequency rank
- #19,581
- “downed” frequency rank
- 64897
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | darned | downed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of darn | simple past and past participle of down |
Where the eye mixes darned and downed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. darned and downed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses darned with downed
A purely visual mix-up. darned (/dɑːnd/) and downed (/daʊnd/) 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 64897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
darned is recorded at frequency rank #45,316, classified as averb, pronounced /dɑːnd/. downed is at rank #19,581, tagged as averb, pronounced /daʊnd/.
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 64897, this pair ranks #75,394 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of darned vs downed
Shared letters: den. Private to "darned": ar. Private to "downed": ow.
"darned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "downed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "darned" and "downed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "darned" vs "downed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "darned" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "downed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #75,394 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "darned" and "downed" 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 #75,394 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.