dilutedvsdisputedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“diluted” and “disputed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,601
“diluted” frequency rank
#10,199
“disputed” frequency rank
25800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature diluted disputed
Definition That has had something added in order to dilute it. Argued; not certain, agreed upon, or accepted.

Letter map: diluted vs disputed

Shared letters muted; letters that set diluted and disputed apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
diluted
8 ch
disputed

Spelling & dictionary notes on diluted vs disputed

diluted and disputed 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 25800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diluted is recorded at frequency rank #15,601, classified as anadj. disputed is at rank #10,199, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈpjuːtɪd/.

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 25800, this pair ranks #391,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of diluted vs disputed

Shared letters: deitu. Private to "diluted": l. Private to "disputed": ps.

"diluted" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "disputed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dilutedddiluted · dilluted · diltued · diluetd · dilutde · dilutedd · dilutted · diulted
  • disputedddisputed · dipsuted · dispputed · disptued · dispuetd · disputde · disputedd · disputted

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "diluted" and "disputed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "diluted" or "disputed" show up more?
"disputed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,199 in our English list, against #15,601 for "diluted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "diluted" and "disputed". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "diluted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "disputed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "diluted" and "disputed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diluted vs disused". 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 #391,508 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list