Which to use
“gazed” is a verb and “graze” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- #28,225
- “graze” frequency rank
- 63959
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gazed | graze |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gaze | The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing. |
Where the eye mixes gazed and graze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gazed (CVCVC) and graze (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between gazed and graze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gazed is /ɡeɪzd/ while graze is /ɡɹeɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63959, 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/. graze is at rank #28,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪz/.
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 63959, this pair ranks #80,197 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gazed vs graze
Shared letters: aegz. Private to "gazed": d. Private to "graze": r.
"gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "graze" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gazed" and "graze" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "gazed" vs "graze" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "graze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,197 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gazed" and "graze" 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 #80,197 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.