Which to use
“falter” is a noun and “faulted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,137
- “falter” frequency rank
- #40,692
- “faulted” frequency rank
- 76829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | falter | faulted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An unsteadiness. | simple past and past participle of fault |
Letter map: falter vs faulted
Shared letters muted; letters that set falter and faulted apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. falter runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against faulted's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: falter vs faulted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: falter is anoun and faultedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
falter is recorded at frequency rank #36,137, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒltə/. faulted is at rank #40,692, 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 76829, this pair ranks #29,020 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of falter vs faulted
Shared letters: aeflt. Private to "falter": r. Private to "faulted": du.
"falter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "faulted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "falter" for "faulted" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "falter" or "faulted" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "falter" vs "faulted" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "falter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faulted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,020 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "falter" and "faulted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faulted vs fluted". 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 #29,020 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.