Which to use
“gasped” is a verb and “gassed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,186
- “gasped” frequency rank
- #28,560
- “gassed” frequency rank
- 59746
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gasped | gassed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gasp | In a gaseous state. |
Where the eye mixes gasped and gassed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gasped and gassed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between gasped and gassed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gasped is /ɡæspt/ while gassed is /ɡæst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - p in “gasped” becomes s in “gassed”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gasped is recorded at frequency rank #31,186, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡæspt/. gassed is at rank #28,560, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɡæst/.
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 59746, this pair ranks #104,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gasped vs gassed
Shared letters: adegs. Private to "gasped": p. Private to "gassed": -.
"gasped" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "gassed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gasped" and "gassed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "gasped" vs "gassed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "gasped" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gassed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gasped" and "gassed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gassed vs grasse". 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 #104,340 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.