Which to use
“discourage” is a verb and “discouraged” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,498
- “discourage” frequency rank
- #12,579
- “discouraged” frequency rank
- 26077
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | discourage | discouraged |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject. | Having lost confidence or hope; dejected; disheartened. |
Where the eye mixes discourage and discouraged
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: discourage is /dɪsˈkʌɹɪd͡ʒ/ while discouraged is /dɪsˈkʌɹɪd͡ʒd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “discourage” sits inside “discouraged”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
discourage is recorded at frequency rank #13,498, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪsˈkʌɹɪd͡ʒ/. discouraged is at rank #12,579, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈkʌɹɪd͡ʒd/.
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 26077, this pair ranks #389,377 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of discourage vs discouraged
Shared letters: acdegiorsu. Private to "discourage": -. Private to "discouraged": -.
"discourage" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCV · "discouraged" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- discourage ← ddiscourage · dicsourage · disccourage · discoruage · discouarge · discouraeg · discouragge · discourgae
- discouraged ← ddiscouraged · dicsouraged · disccouraged · discoruaged · discouarged · discouraegd · discouragde · discouragedd