Which to use
“govern” and “governed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,709
- “govern” frequency rank
- #8,936
- “governed” frequency rank
- 20645
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | govern | governed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in. | simple past and past participle of govern |
Where the eye mixes govern and governed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. govern runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against governed's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses govern with governed
A purely visual mix-up. govern (/ˈɡʌv.ən/) and governed (/ˈɡəvɚnd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “govern” sits inside “governed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
govern is recorded at frequency rank #11,709, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɡʌv.ən/. governed is at rank #8,936, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡəvɚnd/.
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 20645, this pair ranks #429,675 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of govern vs governed
Shared letters: egnorv. Private to "govern": -. Private to "governed": d.
"govern" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "governed" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "govern" for "governed" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "govern" or "governed" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "govern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "governed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,675 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "govern" and "governed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goer vs govern". 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 #429,675 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.