Which to use
“entered” and “enters” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,936
- “entered” frequency rank
- #7,009
- “enters” frequency rank
- 8945
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | entered | enters |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of enter | third-person singular simple present indicative of enter |
Where the eye mixes entered and enters
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. entered runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against enters's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between entered and enters
A purely visual mix-up. entered (/ˈɛntə(ɹ)d/) and enters (/ˈɛntɚz/) 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 8945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
entered is recorded at frequency rank #1,936, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɛntə(ɹ)d/. enters is at rank #7,009, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɛntɚz/.
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 8945, this pair ranks #499,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of entered vs enters
Shared letters: enrt. Private to "entered": d. Private to "enters": s.
"entered" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "enters" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "entered" and "enters" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "entered" or "enters" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "entered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #499,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "entered" and "enters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Enders vs enters". 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 #499,876 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.