Which to use
“gazed” is a verb and “glazed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- #18,571
- “glazed” frequency rank
- 54305
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gazed | glazed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gaze | Of eyes: glistening but not focusing on anything in particular; showing no liveliness. |
Where the eye mixes gazed and glazed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses gazed with glazed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gazed is /ɡeɪzd/ while glazed is /ɡleɪzd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54305, 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/. glazed is at rank #18,571, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɡleɪzd/.
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 54305, this pair ranks #142,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gazed vs glazed
Shared letters: adegz. Private to "gazed": -. Private to "glazed": l.
"gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "glazed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gazed" for "glazed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "gazed" vs "glazed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gazed" and "glazed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gazed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "glazed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #142,113 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gazed" and "glazed" 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 #142,113 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.