Which to use
“defended” is an adjective and “defender” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,118
- “defended” frequency rank
- #5,954
- “defender” frequency rank
- 13072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defended | defender |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having defenses. | Someone who defends people or property. |
Where the eye mixes defended and defender
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. defended and defender follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between defended and defender
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: defended is /dɪˈfɛndɪd/ while defender is /dɪˈfɛndə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “defended” becomes r in “defender”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defended is recorded at frequency rank #7,118, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈfɛndɪd/. defender is at rank #5,954, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈfɛndə(ɹ)/.
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 13072, this pair ranks #477,929 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of defended vs defender
Shared letters: defn. Private to "defended": -. Private to "defender": r.
"defended" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "defender" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "defended" for "defender" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "defended" or "defender" show up more?
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 "defended" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "defender" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #477,929 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defended" and "defender" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defended vs demented". 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 #477,929 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.