Which to use
“etch” is a verb and “etched” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,917
- “etch” frequency rank
- #20,627
- “etched” frequency rank
- 58544
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | etch | etched |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cut into a surface with an acid or other corrosive substance in order to make a pattern. Best known as a technique for creating printing plates, but also used for decoration on metal, and, in modern industry, to make circuit boards. | Cut or dug into the surface as by etching. |
Letter map: etch vs etched
Shared letters muted; letters that set etch and etched apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Grammar separator: etch vs etched
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: etch is averb and etchedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “etch” sits inside “etched”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58544, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
etch is recorded at frequency rank #37,917, classified as averb, pronounced /ɛt͡ʃ/. etched is at rank #20,627, 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 58544, this pair ranks #111,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of etch vs etched
Shared letters: ceht. Private to "etch": -. Private to "etched": d.
"etch" · 4 letters · shape VCCC · "etched" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "etch" for "etched" ever safe?
Frequency check: "etch" vs "etched" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "etch" and "etched".
- Full dictionary entry for "etch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "etched" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #111,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "etch" and "etched" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ECHR vs etch". 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 #111,853 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.