Which to use
“dish” is a noun and “dished” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,028
- “dish” frequency rank
- #46,422
- “dished” frequency rank
- 51450
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dish | dished |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. | simple past and past participle of dish |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set dish and dished apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
dish and dished form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dish” sits inside “dished” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dish is recorded at frequency rank #5,028, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪʃ/. dished is at rank #46,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪʃt/.
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 51450, this pair ranks #165,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dish" and "dished" be used interchangeably?
Remembering dish vs dished
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “dish”; for a verb, it's “dished”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “dish” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable