Which to use
“delved” and “delves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,157
- “delved” frequency rank
- #41,077
- “delves” frequency rank
- 85234
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delved | delves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of delve | third-person singular simple present indicative of delve |
Where the eye mixes delved and delves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. delved and delves follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: delved vs delves
A purely visual mix-up. delved (/dɛlvd/) and delves (/dɛlvz/) 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 a single letter - d in “delved” becomes s in “delves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
delved is recorded at frequency rank #44,157, classified as averb, pronounced /dɛlvd/. delves is at rank #41,077, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɛlvz/.
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 85234, this pair ranks #10,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of delved vs delves
Shared letters: delv. Private to "delved": -. Private to "delves": s.
"delved" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "delves" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "delved" for "delves" ever safe?
Which is more common, "delved" or "delves"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "delved" and "delves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "delved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delved" and "delves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delved vs dented". 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 #10,717 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.