feathervsfeatheredConfusable pair

Quick tell: feather is a noun, feathered is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feather” is a noun and “feathered” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,379
“feather” frequency rank
#27,146
“feathered” frequency rank
38525
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feather feathered
Definition A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display. Covered with feathers.

Letter map: feather vs feathered

Shared letters muted; letters that set feather and feathered apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. feather runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against feathered's 9 (CVVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
feather
9 ch
feathered

Grammar separator: feather vs feathered

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: feather is anoun and featheredanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “feather” sits inside “feathered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38525, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feather is recorded at frequency rank #11,379, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/. feathered is at rank #27,146, 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 38525, this pair ranks #285,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feather vs feathered

Shared letters: aefhrt. Private to "feather": -. Private to "feathered": d.

"feather" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "feathered" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feather ← efather · faether · feahter · featehr · featherr · feathher · feathre · featther
  • feathered ← efathered · faethered · feahtered · featehred · featheerd · featherde · featheredd · featherred

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "feather" and "feathered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feather" is a noun and "feathered" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "feather" or "feathered" show up more?
"feather" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,379 in our English list, against #27,146 for "feathered". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "feather" and "feathered". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feather" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feathered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feather" and "feathered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feather vs fester". 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 #285,143 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list