Which to use
“gasped” and “gazed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,186
- “gasped” frequency rank
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- 66920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gasped | gazed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gasp | simple past and past participle of gaze |
Where the eye mixes gasped and gazed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gasped runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against gazed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between gasped and gazed
A purely visual mix-up. gasped (/ɡæspt/) and gazed (/ɡeɪzd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66920, 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/. gazed is at rank #35,734, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡeɪzd/.
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 66920, this pair ranks #65,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gasped vs gazed
Shared letters: adeg. Private to "gasped": ps. Private to "gazed": z.
"gasped" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gasped" and "gazed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "gasped" vs "gazed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "gasped" and "gazed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gasped" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gazed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gasped" and "gazed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gazed vs glazer". 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 #65,763 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.