Which to use
“dominate” and “dominated” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,658
- “dominate” frequency rank
- #5,321
- “dominated” frequency rank
- 13979
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dominate | dominated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To govern, rule or control by superior authority or power | simple past and past participle of dominate |
Where the eye mixes dominate and dominated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dominate and dominated
A purely visual mix-up. dominate (/ˈdɒm.ɪ.neɪt/) and dominated (/ˈdɒm.əˌneɪ.tɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dominate” sits inside “dominated”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dominate is recorded at frequency rank #8,658, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈdɒm.ɪ.neɪt/. dominated is at rank #5,321, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɒm.əˌneɪ.tɪd/.
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 13979, this pair ranks #472,764 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dominate vs dominated
Shared letters: adeimnot. Private to "dominate": -. Private to "dominated": -.
"dominate" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "dominated" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dominate" for "dominated" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dominate" vs "dominated" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "dominate" and "dominated" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dominate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dominated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #472,764 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dominate" and "dominated" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denominated vs dominated". 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 #472,764 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.