Which to use
“filed” and “fooled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,058
- “filed” frequency rank
- #12,980
- “fooled” frequency rank
- 16038
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filed | fooled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of file | simple past and past participle of fool |
Where the eye mixes filed and fooled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: filed vs fooled
A purely visual mix-up. filed (/faɪld/) and fooled (/fuːld/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filed is recorded at frequency rank #3,058, classified as averb, pronounced /faɪld/. fooled is at rank #12,980, tagged as averb, pronounced /fuːld/.
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 16038, this pair ranks #460,313 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of filed vs fooled
Shared letters: defl. Private to "filed": i. Private to "fooled": o.
"filed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fooled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "filed" for "fooled" ever safe?
Frequency check: "filed" vs "fooled" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "filed" and "fooled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "filed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fooled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #460,313 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filed" and "fooled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fooled vs Foyle". 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 #460,313 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.