Which to use
“darted” and “dusted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,174
- “darted” frequency rank
- #25,043
- “dusted” frequency rank
- 73217
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | darted | dusted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of dart | simple past and past participle of dust |
Where the eye mixes darted and dusted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. darted and dusted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: darted vs dusted
A purely visual mix-up. darted (/ˈdɑɹtɪd/) and dusted (/ˈdʌstɪd/) 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 73217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
darted is recorded at frequency rank #48,174, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdɑɹtɪd/. dusted is at rank #25,043, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdʌstɪd/.
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 73217, this pair ranks #40,371 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of darted vs dusted
Shared letters: det. Private to "darted": ar. Private to "dusted": su.
"darted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "dusted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "darted" for "dusted" ever safe?
Frequency check: "darted" vs "dusted" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "darted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dusted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,371 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "darted" and "dusted" 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 #40,371 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.