Which to use
“disturb” is a verb and “disturbed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,703
- “disturb” frequency rank
- #9,598
- “disturbed” frequency rank
- 23301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disturb | disturbed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | to confuse a quiet, constant state or a calm, continuous flow, in particular: thoughts, actions or liquids. | Showing symptoms of mental illness, severe psychosis, or neurosis. |
Where the eye mixes disturb and disturbed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between disturb and disturbed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: disturb is /dɪˈstɜːb/ while disturbed is /dɪsˈtɜːbd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “disturb” sits inside “disturbed”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disturb is recorded at frequency rank #13,703, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈstɜːb/. disturbed is at rank #9,598, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈtɜːbd/.
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 23301, this pair ranks #410,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of disturb vs disturbed
Shared letters: bdirstu. Private to "disturb": -. Private to "disturbed": e.
"disturb" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "disturbed" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "disturb" and "disturbed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "disturb" vs "disturbed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "disturb" and "disturbed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "disturb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "disturbed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #410,335 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disturb" and "disturbed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distort vs disturb". 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 #410,335 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.