Which to use
“desired” and “despised” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,492
- “desired” frequency rank
- #21,773
- “despised” frequency rank
- 27265
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desired | despised |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of desire | simple past and past participle of despise |
Letter map: desired vs despised
Shared letters muted; letters that set desired and despised apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. desired runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against despised's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: desired and despised
desired and despised are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desired is recorded at frequency rank #5,492, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈzaɪəd/. despised is at rank #21,773, tagged as averb.
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 27265, this pair ranks #380,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of desired vs despised
Shared letters: deis. Private to "desired": r. Private to "despised": p.
"desired" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "despised" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "desired" and "despised" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "desired" vs "despised" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "desired" and "despised".
- Full dictionary entry for "desired" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "despised" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desired" and "despised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defiled vs desired". 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 #380,284 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.