garevsgatedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gare is a noun, gated is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gare” is a noun and “gated” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,641
“gare” frequency rank
#21,525
“gated” frequency rank
69166
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gare gated
Definition Coarse wool on the legs of sheep. simple past and past participle of gate

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set gare and gated apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
gare
5 ch
gated

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gare is /ɡɛə(ɹ)/ while gated is /ˈɡeɪtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gare is recorded at frequency rank #47,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɛə(ɹ)/. gated is at rank #21,525, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡeɪtɪd/.

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 69166, this pair ranks #55,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gare vs gated

Shared letters: aeg. Private to "gare": r. Private to "gated": dt.

"gare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gated" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • garegarre · ggare · grae
  • gatedagted · gaetd · gatde · gatedd · gatted · ggated · gtaed

Frequency comparison

gare#47,641
gated#21,525

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gare" and "gated" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gare" is a noun and "gated" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gare" or "gated"?
"gated" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,525 in our English list, against #47,641 for "gare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering gare vs gated

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list