Which to use
“grieve” and “grieved” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,839
- “grieve” frequency rank
- #42,678
- “grieved” frequency rank
- 61517
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grieve | grieved |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cause sorrow or distress to. | simple past and past participle of grieve |
Where the eye mixes grieve and grieved
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: grieve vs grieved
A purely visual mix-up. grieve (/ɡɹiːv/) and grieved (/ɡɹiːvd/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “grieve” sits inside “grieved”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grieve is recorded at frequency rank #18,839, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɹiːv/. grieved is at rank #42,678, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹiːvd/.
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 61517, this pair ranks #93,796 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grieve vs grieved
Shared letters: egirv. Private to "grieve": -. Private to "grieved": d.
"grieve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "grieved" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grieve" and "grieved" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "grieve" vs "grieved" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "grieve" and "grieved" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "grieve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grieved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #93,796 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grieve" and "grieved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grieved vs grooved". 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 #93,796 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.