Which to use
“depart” and “departed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,679
- “depart” frequency rank
- #9,872
- “departed” frequency rank
- 21551
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | depart | departed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To leave. | simple past and past participle of depart |
Where the eye mixes depart and departed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. depart runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against departed's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses depart with departed
A purely visual mix-up. depart (/dɪˈpɑːt/) and departed (/dɪˈpɑɹtɪd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “depart” sits inside “departed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
depart is recorded at frequency rank #11,679, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈpɑːt/. departed is at rank #9,872, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪˈpɑɹtɪd/.
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 21551, this pair ranks #423,057 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of depart vs departed
Shared letters: adeprt. Private to "depart": -. Private to "departed": -.
"depart" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "departed" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "depart" and "departed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "depart" or "departed"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "depart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "departed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,057 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "depart" and "departed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depart vs DePaul". 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 #423,057 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.