disregard vs disregarded, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“disregard” is a noun and “disregarded” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,877
“disregard” frequency rank: #25,737
“disregarded” frequency rank: 37614
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	disregard	disregarded
Definition	The act or state of deliberately not paying attention or caring about something.	ignored

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set disregard and disregarded apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch

disregard

11 ch

disregarded

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

disregard and disregarded 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) - “disregard” sits inside “disregarded” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

disregard is recorded at frequency rank #11,877, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪsɹɪˈɡɑːd/. disregarded is at rank #25,737, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsɹɪˈɡɑɹdɪd/.

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 37614, this pair ranks #293,047 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Frequency comparison

disregard#11,877

disregarded#25,737

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "disregard" and "disregarded" be used interchangeably?

No, "disregard" and "disregarded" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering disregard vs disregarded

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “disregard”; for an adjective, it's “disregarded”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “disregard” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable