Which to use
“delve” and “delved” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,139
- “delve” frequency rank
- #44,157
- “delved” frequency rank
- 68296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delve | delved |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To dig into the ground, especially with a shovel. | simple past and past participle of delve |
Where the eye mixes delve and delved
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. delve runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against delved's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses delve with delved
A purely visual mix-up. delve (/dɛlv/) and delved (/dɛlvd/) 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) - “delve” sits inside “delved”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
delve is recorded at frequency rank #24,139, classified as averb, pronounced /dɛlv/. delved is at rank #44,157, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɛlvd/.
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 68296, this pair ranks #59,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of delve vs delved
Shared letters: delv. Private to "delve": -. Private to "delved": -.
"delve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "delved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "delve" and "delved" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "delve" vs "delved" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "delve" and "delved" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "delve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delve" and "delved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delved vs delves". 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 #59,517 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.