Which to use
“faulted” is a verb and “faulty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,692
- “faulted” frequency rank
- #12,596
- “faulty” frequency rank
- 53288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faulted | faulty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of fault | Having or displaying faults; not perfect; not adequate or acceptable. |
Letter map: faulted vs faulty
Shared letters muted; letters that set faulted and faulty apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. faulted runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against faulty's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - faulted and faulty
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: faulted is averb and faultyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faulted is recorded at frequency rank #40,692, classified as averb. faulty is at rank #12,596, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɒlti/.
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 53288, this pair ranks #150,181 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of faulted vs faulty
Shared letters: afltu. Private to "faulted": de. Private to "faulty": y.
"faulted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "faulty" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "faulted" and "faulty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "faulted" or "faulty" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "faulted" vs "faulty" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "faulted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faulty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,181 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faulted" and "faulty" 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 #150,181 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.