filled vs fished, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“filled” is an adjective and “fished” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,041
“filled” frequency rank: #26,089
“fished” frequency rank: 28130
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	filled	fished
Definition	That is now full.	simple past and past participle of fish

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set filled and fished apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

filled

6 ch

fished

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: filled is /fɪld/ while fished is /fɪʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28130, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filled is recorded at frequency rank #2,041, classified as anadj, pronounced /fɪld/. fished is at rank #26,089, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɪʃt/.

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 28130, this pair ranks #373,490 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of filled vs fished

Shared letters: defi. Private to "filled": l. Private to "fished": hs.

"filled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fished" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

filled ← ffilled · fileld · fillde · filledd · fliled · iflled
fished ← ffished · fihsed · fisehd · fishde · fishedd · fishhed · fisshed · fsihed

Frequency comparison

filled#2,041

fished#26,089

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "filled" and "fished" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "filled" is an adjective and "fished" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "filled" or "fished"?

"filled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,041 in our English list, against #26,089 for "fished". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering filled vs fished

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “filled”; for a verb, it's “fished”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “filled” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable