Which to use
“despise” and “despised” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,934
- “despise” frequency rank
- #21,773
- “despised” frequency rank
- 36707
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | despise | despised |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To regard with contempt or scorn. | simple past and past participle of despise |
Letter map: despise vs despised
Shared letters muted; letters that set despise and despised apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. despise runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against despised's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: despise and despised
despise 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 extra letter(s) - “despise” sits inside “despised”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
despise is recorded at frequency rank #14,934, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈspaɪz/. 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 36707, this pair ranks #300,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of despise vs despised
Shared letters: deips. Private to "despise": -. Private to "despised": -.
"despise" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "despised" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "despise" for "despised" ever safe?
Which is more common, "despise" or "despised"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "despise" and "despised".
- Full dictionary entry for "despise" 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 #300,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "despise" and "despised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depose vs despise". 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 #300,867 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.