Which to use
“gazed” and “grazed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,734
- “gazed” frequency rank
- #33,259
- “grazed” frequency rank
- 68993
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gazed | grazed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of gaze | simple past and past participle of graze |
Where the eye mixes gazed and grazed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. gazed runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against grazed's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between gazed and grazed
A purely visual mix-up. gazed (/ɡeɪzd/) and grazed (/ɡɹeɪzd/) 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 68993, 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/. grazed is at rank #33,259, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹeɪzd/.
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 68993, this pair ranks #56,468 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gazed vs grazed
Shared letters: adegz. Private to "gazed": -. Private to "grazed": r.
"gazed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "grazed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gazed" and "grazed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "gazed" or "grazed"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gazed" and "grazed" 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 "grazed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,468 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gazed" and "grazed" 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 #56,468 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.