gracevsgrazedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: grace is a noun, grazed is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“grace” is a noun and “grazed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,680
“grace” frequency rank
#33,259
“grazed” frequency rank
35939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grace grazed
Definition Charming, pleasing qualities. simple past and past participle of graze

Where the eye mixes grace and grazed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grace runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against grazed's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
grace
6 ch
grazed

Why the eye confuses grace with grazed

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grace is /ɡɹeɪs/ while grazed is /ɡɹeɪzd/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grace is recorded at frequency rank #2,680, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪs/. 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 35939, this pair ranks #307,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grace vs grazed

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "grace": c. Private to "grazed": dz.

"grace" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "grazed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grace ← garce · ggrace · gracce · graec · grcae · grrace · rgace
  • grazed ← garzed · ggrazed · graezd · grazde · grazedd · grazzed · grrazed · grzaed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grace" and "grazed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grace" is a noun and "grazed" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "grace" or "grazed"?
"grace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,680 in our English list, against #33,259 for "grazed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "grace" 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 #307,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grace" and "grazed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glazer vs grazed". 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 #307,612 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list