diseasedvsdispleasedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,037
“diseased” frequency rank
#30,006
“displeased” frequency rank
55043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature diseased displeased
Definition Affected with or suffering from disease. Not pleased or happy with something.

Where the eye mixes diseased and displeased

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. diseased runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVC) against displeased's 10 (CVCCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
diseased
10 ch
displeased

Look-alike desk: diseased vs displeased

A purely visual mix-up. diseased (/dɪˈziːzd/) and displeased (/dɪsˈpliːzd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diseased is recorded at frequency rank #25,037, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈziːzd/. displeased is at rank #30,006, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈpliːzd/.

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 55043, this pair ranks #136,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of diseased vs displeased

Shared letters: adeis. Private to "diseased": -. Private to "displeased": lp.

"diseased" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "displeased" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diseased ← ddiseased · diesased · disaesed · diseaesd · diseasde · diseasedd · diseassed · disesaed
  • displeased ← ddispleased · dipsleased · dislpeased · dispelased · displaesed · displeaesd · displeasde · displeasedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "diseased" and "displeased" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dɪˈziːzd/ versus /dɪsˈpliːzd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "diseased" or "displeased"?
"diseased" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,037 in our English list, against #30,006 for "displeased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "diseased" and "displeased" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "diseased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "displeased" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,562 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "diseased" and "displeased" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diseased 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 #136,562 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