Which to use
“gated” and “gazed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,525
- “gated” frequency rank
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- 57259
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gated | gazed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gate | simple past and past participle of gaze |
Where the eye mixes gated and gazed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gated and gazed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between gated and gazed
A purely visual mix-up. gated (/ˈɡeɪtɪd/) 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 a single letter - t in “gated” becomes z in “gazed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gated is recorded at frequency rank #21,525, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɡeɪtɪd/. 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 57259, this pair ranks #120,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gated vs gazed
Shared letters: adeg. Private to "gated": t. Private to "gazed": z.
"gated" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gated" and "gazed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "gated" or "gazed"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gated" 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 #120,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gated" 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 #120,553 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.