Which to use
“grain” is a noun and “grained” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,329
- “grain” frequency rank
- #32,417
- “grained” frequency rank
- 37746
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grain | grained |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley. | Having a grain or grains. |
Letter map: grain vs grained
Shared letters muted; letters that set grain and grained apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - grain and grained
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: grain is anoun and grainedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “grain” sits inside “grained”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grain is recorded at frequency rank #5,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪn/. grained is at rank #32,417, tagged as anadj.
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 37746, this pair ranks #291,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grain vs grained
Shared letters: aginr. Private to "grain": -. Private to "grained": de.
"grain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "grained" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grain" for "grained" ever safe?
Which is more common, "grain" or "grained"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "grain" and "grained".
- Full dictionary entry for "grain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grained" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #291,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grain" and "grained" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grained vs groaned". 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 #291,870 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.