Which to use
“display” is a noun and “displayed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,339
- “display” frequency rank
- #5,320
- “displayed” frequency rank
- 7659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | display | displayed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A show or spectacle. | simple past and past participle of display |
Where the eye mixes display and displayed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses display with displayed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: display is /dɪsˈpleɪ/ while displayed is /dɪsˈpleɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “display” sits inside “displayed”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
display is recorded at frequency rank #2,339, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪsˈpleɪ/. displayed is at rank #5,320, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪsˈpleɪd/.
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 7659, this pair ranks #506,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of display vs displayed
Shared letters: adilpsy. Private to "display": -. Private to "displayed": e.
"display" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV · "displayed" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "display" for "displayed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "display" vs "displayed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "display" and "displayed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "display" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "displayed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #506,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "display" and "displayed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dismayed vs displayed". 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 #506,157 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.