Which to use
“doubt” is a verb and “doubted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,333
- “doubt” frequency rank
- #16,218
- “doubted” frequency rank
- 17551
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doubt | doubted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To be undecided about; to lack confidence in; to disbelieve, to question. | Considered doubtful; not trusted; uncertain. |
Where the eye mixes doubt and doubted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses doubt with doubted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doubt is /daʊt/ while doubted is /ˈdaʊtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “doubt” sits inside “doubted”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doubt is recorded at frequency rank #1,333, classified as averb, pronounced /daʊt/. doubted is at rank #16,218, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdaʊtɪd/.
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 17551, this pair ranks #450,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of doubt vs doubted
Shared letters: bdotu. Private to "doubt": -. Private to "doubted": e.
"doubt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "doubted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doubt" and "doubted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "doubt" or "doubted" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "doubt" and "doubted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "doubt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doubted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doubt" and "doubted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "doubt vs dour". 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 #450,674 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.