Which to use
“grained” is an adjective and “grinned” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,417
- “grained” frequency rank
- #34,090
- “grinned” frequency rank
- 66507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grained | grinned |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a grain or grains. | simple past and past participle of grin |
Letter map: grained vs grinned
Shared letters muted; letters that set grained and grinned apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Grammar separator: grained vs grinned
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: grained is anadjective and grinnedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grained is recorded at frequency rank #32,417, classified as anadj. grinned is at rank #34,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹɪnd/.
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 66507, this pair ranks #67,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grained vs grinned
Shared letters: deginr. Private to "grained": a. Private to "grinned": -.
"grained" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "grinned" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grained" and "grinned" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "grained" or "grinned"?
What to do next
Pair "grained" vs "grinned" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "grained" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grinned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grained" and "grinned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grieved vs grinned". 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 #67,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.