Which to use
“dogged” is a verb and “doped” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,009
- “dogged” frequency rank
- #31,146
- “doped” frequency rank
- 61155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dogged | doped |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of dog | Drugged. |
Where the eye mixes dogged and doped
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dogged runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against doped's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dogged with doped
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dogged is /dɒɡd/ while doped is /dəʊpt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dogged is recorded at frequency rank #30,009, classified as averb, pronounced /dɒɡd/. doped is at rank #31,146, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dəʊpt/.
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 61155, this pair ranks #95,871 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dogged vs doped
Shared letters: deo. Private to "dogged": g. Private to "doped": p.
"dogged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "doped" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dogged" and "doped" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dogged" or "doped"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dogged" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,871 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dogged" and "doped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doped vs Dore". 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 #95,871 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.