Which to use
“extinguish” and “extinguished” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,453
- “extinguish” frequency rank
- #22,667
- “extinguished” frequency rank
- 50120
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | extinguish | extinguished |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench. | simple past and past participle of extinguish |
Letter map: extinguish vs extinguished
Shared letters muted; letters that set extinguish and extinguished apart highlighted. Shared run: 10.
Corpus notes: extinguish and extinguished
extinguish and extinguished 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 2 extra letter(s) - “extinguish” sits inside “extinguished”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
extinguish is recorded at frequency rank #27,453, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/. extinguished is at rank #22,667, tagged as averb.
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 50120, this pair ranks #177,176 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of extinguish vs extinguished
Shared letters: eghinstux. Private to "extinguish": -. Private to "extinguished": d.
"extinguish" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCC · "extinguished" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- extinguish ← etxinguish · exitnguish · extignuish · extingguish · extingiush · extinguihs · extinguishh · extinguissh
- extinguished ← etxinguished · exitnguished · extignuished · extingguished · extingiushed · extinguihsed · extinguisehd · extinguishde
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "extinguish" and "extinguished" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "extinguish" or "extinguished"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "extinguish" and "extinguished". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "extinguish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "extinguished" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,176 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "extinguish" and "extinguished" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "extinguish vs extinguisher". 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 #177,176 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.