Which to use
“deceive” and “deceived” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,585
- “deceive” frequency rank
- #17,341
- “deceived” frequency rank
- 34926
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deceive | deceived |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To trick or mislead. | simple past and past participle of deceive |
Where the eye mixes deceive and deceived
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between deceive and deceived
A purely visual mix-up. deceive (/dɪˈsiːv/) and deceived (/dɪˈsiːvd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “deceive” sits inside “deceived”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deceive is recorded at frequency rank #17,585, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈsiːv/. deceived is at rank #17,341, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈsiːvd/.
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 34926, this pair ranks #316,441 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of deceive vs deceived
Shared letters: cdeiv. Private to "deceive": -. Private to "deceived": -.
"deceive" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "deceived" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "deceive" and "deceived" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "deceive" vs "deceived" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "deceive" and "deceived" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "deceive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deceived" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #316,441 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deceive" and "deceived" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deceive vs deprive". 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 #316,441 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.