employedvsexplodedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,486
“employed” frequency rank
#10,044
“exploded” frequency rank
13530
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature employed exploded
Definition In a job; working. Having been subjected to an explosion; blown up.

Letter map: employed vs exploded

Shared letters muted; letters that set employed and exploded apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

8 ch
employed
8 ch
exploded

Corpus notes: employed and exploded

employed and exploded are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

employed is recorded at frequency rank #3,486, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪmˈplɔɪd/. exploded is at rank #10,044, tagged as anadj.

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 13530, this pair ranks #475,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of employed vs exploded

Shared letters: delop. Private to "employed": my. Private to "exploded": x.

"employed" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVVVC  ·  "exploded" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • employedemlpoyed · emmployed · emplloyed · emploeyd · employde · employedd · employyed · emplyoed
  • explodedepxloded · exlpoded · expldoed · explloded · explodded · explodedd · exploedd · expolded

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "employed" and "exploded" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "employed" vs "exploded" - which ranks higher?
"employed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,486 in our English list, against #10,044 for "exploded". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "employed" and "exploded". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "employed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exploded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #475,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "employed" and "exploded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "explode vs exploded". 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 #475,275 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