Which to use
“gazed” and “gazes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- #46,480
- “gazes” frequency rank
- 82214
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gazed | gazes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gaze | third-person singular simple present indicative of gaze |
Where the eye mixes gazed and gazes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gazed and gazes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: gazed vs gazes
A purely visual mix-up. gazed (/ɡeɪzd/) and gazes (/ˈɡeɪ.zɪz/) 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 - d in “gazed” becomes s in “gazes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gazed is recorded at frequency rank #35,734, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡeɪzd/. gazes is at rank #46,480, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡeɪ.zɪz/.
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 82214, this pair ranks #16,155 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gazed vs gazes
Shared letters: aegz. Private to "gazed": d. Private to "gazes": s.
"gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "gazes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gazed" for "gazes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "gazed" or "gazes"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gazed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gazes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,155 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gazed" and "gazes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gazes 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 #16,155 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.