Which to use
“grilled” and “growled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,037
- “grilled” frequency rank
- #44,821
- “growled” frequency rank
- 55858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grilled | growled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of grill | simple past and past participle of growl |
Where the eye mixes grilled and growled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. grilled and growled follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses grilled with growled
A purely visual mix-up. grilled (/ɡɹɪld/) and growled (/ɡɹaʊld/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grilled is recorded at frequency rank #11,037, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɹɪld/. growled is at rank #44,821, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹaʊld/.
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 55858, this pair ranks #130,439 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grilled vs growled
Shared letters: deglr. Private to "grilled": i. Private to "growled": ow.
"grilled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "growled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grilled" for "growled" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "grilled" or "growled" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "grilled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "growled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #130,439 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grilled" and "growled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grooved vs growled". 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 #130,439 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.