donatedvsdottedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“donated” and “dotted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,463
“donated” frequency rank
#16,895
“dotted” frequency rank
23358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donated dotted
Definition simple past and past participle of donate simple past and past participle of dot

Where the eye mixes donated and dotted

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
donated
6 ch
dotted

Look-alike desk: donated vs dotted

A purely visual mix-up. donated (/dəʊˈneɪtɪd/) and dotted (/ˈdɑtɪd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donated is recorded at frequency rank #6,463, classified as averb, pronounced /dəʊˈneɪtɪd/. dotted is at rank #16,895, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdɑtɪd/.

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 23358, this pair ranks #409,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donated vs dotted

Shared letters: deot. Private to "donated": an. Private to "dotted": -.

"donated" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "dotted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donatedddonated · dnoated · doanted · donaetd · donatde · donatedd · donatted · donnated
  • dottedddotted · doted · dotetd · dottde · dottedd · dtoted · odtted

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "donated" for "dotted" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dəʊˈneɪtɪd/ versus /ˈdɑtɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donated" or "dotted"?
"donated" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,463 in our English list, against #16,895 for "dotted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "donated" and "dotted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "donated" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dotted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #409,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donated" and "dotted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dotted vs Dottie". 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 #409,879 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list