Which to use
“exposed” is an adjective and “exposes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,945
- “exposed” frequency rank
- #16,704
- “exposes” frequency rank
- 19649
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exposed | exposes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Open (especially to something), unconcealed and/or unprotected (and therefore vulnerable, susceptible). | third-person singular simple present indicative of expose |
Where the eye mixes exposed and exposes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. exposed and exposes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: exposed vs exposes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: exposed is /ɪkˈspoʊzd/ while exposes is /ɪksˈpəʊzɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “exposed” becomes s in “exposes”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exposed is recorded at frequency rank #2,945, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪkˈspoʊzd/. exposes is at rank #16,704, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪksˈpəʊzɪz/.
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 19649, this pair ranks #436,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of exposed vs exposes
Shared letters: eopsx. Private to "exposed": d. Private to "exposes": -.
"exposed" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "exposes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "exposed" and "exposes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "exposed" or "exposes" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "exposed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exposes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exposed" and "exposes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exposé vs exposes". 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 #436,688 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.