filmedvsfishedConfusable pair

Which to use

“filmed” and “fished” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,471
“filmed” frequency rank
#26,089
“fished” frequency rank
32560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filmed fished
Definition simple past and past participle of film simple past and past participle of fish

Where the eye mixes filmed and fished

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. filmed and fished follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
filmed
6 ch
fished

Look-alike desk: filmed vs fished

A purely visual mix-up. filmed (/fɪlmd/) and fished (/fɪʃt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filmed is recorded at frequency rank #6,471, classified as averb, pronounced /fɪlmd/. 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 32560, this pair ranks #336,752 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of filmed vs fished

Shared letters: defi. Private to "filmed": lm. Private to "fished": hs.

"filmed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "fished" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filmed ← ffilmed · filemd · fillmed · filmde · filmedd · filmmed · fimled · flimed
  • fished ← ffished · fihsed · fisehd · fishde · fishedd · fishhed · fisshed · fsihed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "filmed" and "fished" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fɪlmd/ versus /fɪʃt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "filmed" vs "fished" - which ranks higher?
"filmed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,471 in our English list, against #26,089 for "fished". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "filmed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fished" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #336,752 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filmed" and "fished" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fished vs fleshed". 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 #336,752 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