enabledvsentailedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,960
“enabled” frequency rank
#31,542
“entailed” frequency rank
37502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enabled entailed
Definition Being capable for use or action; not disabled. Having or resulting from a legal entail; pertaining to inheritance that is limited in descent to a particular class of issue.

Letter map: enabled vs entailed

Shared letters muted; letters that set enabled and entailed apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
enabled
8 ch
entailed

Corpus notes: enabled and entailed

enabled and entailed 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enabled is recorded at frequency rank #5,960, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɛˈneɪbl̩d/. entailed is at rank #31,542, 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 37502, this pair ranks #294,010 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enabled vs entailed

Shared letters: adeln. Private to "enabled": b. Private to "entailed": it.

"enabled" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "entailed" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enabledeanbled · enabbled · enabeld · enablde · enabledd · enablled · enalbed · enbaled
  • entailedenatiled · enntailed · entaield · entailde · entailedd · entailled · entalied · entialed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "enabled" for "entailed" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "enabled" or "entailed"?
"enabled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,960 in our English list, against #31,542 for "entailed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "enabled" vs "entailed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enabled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entailed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,010 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enabled" and "entailed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entailed vs enticed". 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 #294,010 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