entailed vs entitled, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#31,542
“entailed” frequency rank: #2,943
“entitled” frequency rank: 34485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	entailed	entitled
Definition	Having or resulting from a legal entail; pertaining to inheritance that is limited in descent to a particular class of issue.	Having a title.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set entailed and entitled apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

entailed

8 ch

entitled

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

entailed and entitled 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 34485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entailed is recorded at frequency rank #31,542, classified as anadj. entitled is at rank #2,943, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtaɪtl̩d/.

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 34485, this pair ranks #320,372 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entailed vs entitled

Shared letters: deilnt. Private to "entailed": a. Private to "entitled": -.

"entailed" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC · "entitled" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

entailed ← enatiled · enntailed · entaield · entailde · entailedd · entailled · entalied · entialed
entitled ← enittled · enntitled · entilted · entiteld · entitlde · entitledd · entitlled · entittled

Frequency comparison

entailed#31,542

entitled#2,943

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entailed" and "entitled" 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.

Which is more common, "entailed" or "entitled"?

"entitled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,943 in our English list, against #31,542 for "entailed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering entailed vs entitled

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “entailed” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable