Which to use
“glued” is a verb and “gourd” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,926
- “glued” frequency rank
- #36,161
- “gourd” frequency rank
- 53087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | glued | gourd |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of glue | Any of the trailing or climbing vines producing fruit with a hard rind or shell, from the genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita (in Cucurbitaceae). |
Where the eye mixes glued and gourd
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: glued vs gourd
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: glued is /ɡluːd/ while gourd is /ɡʊəd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 53087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
glued is recorded at frequency rank #16,926, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡluːd/. gourd is at rank #36,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡʊəd/.
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 53087, this pair ranks #151,788 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of glued vs gourd
Shared letters: dgu. Private to "glued": el. Private to "gourd": or.
"glued" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "gourd" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "glued" and "gourd" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "glued" or "gourd"?
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 "glued" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gourd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,788 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "glued" and "gourd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goer vs gourd". 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 #151,788 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.