Which to use
“finger” is a noun and “fingered” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,104
- “finger” frequency rank
- #26,088
- “fingered” frequency rank
- 29192
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | finger | fingered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb. | simple past and past participle of finger |
Where the eye mixes finger and fingered
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between finger and fingered
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: finger is /ˈfɪŋɡə/ while fingered is /ˈfɪŋɡəd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “finger” sits inside “fingered”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
finger is recorded at frequency rank #3,104, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɪŋɡə/. fingered is at rank #26,088, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɪŋɡəd/.
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 29192, this pair ranks #365,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of finger vs fingered
Shared letters: efginr. Private to "finger": -. Private to "fingered": d.
"finger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fingered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "finger" for "fingered" ever safe?
Frequency check: "finger" vs "fingered" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "finger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fingered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "finger" and "fingered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fidget vs finger". 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 #365,059 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.