Which to use
“drowned” and “drowns” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,528
- “drowned” frequency rank
- #35,268
- “drowns” frequency rank
- 45796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drowned | drowns |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of drown | third-person singular simple present indicative of drown |
Where the eye mixes drowned and drowns
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. drowned runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against drowns's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: drowned vs drowns
A purely visual mix-up. drowned (/dɹaʊnd/) and drowns (/dɹaʊnz/) 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 45796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drowned is recorded at frequency rank #10,528, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊnd/. drowns is at rank #35,268, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊnz/.
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 45796, this pair ranks #217,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drowned vs drowns
Shared letters: dnorw. Private to "drowned": e. Private to "drowns": s.
"drowned" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "drowns" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drowned" for "drowns" ever safe?
Which is more common, "drowned" or "drowns"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "drowned" and "drowns" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drowned" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drowns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drowned" and "drowns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "downy vs drowns". 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 #217,838 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.