groupvsgrownWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#241
“group” frequency rank
#2,158
“grown” frequency rank
2399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature group grown
Definition A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another. past participle of grow

Where the eye mixes group and grown

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
group
5 ch
grown

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: group is /ɡɹuːp/ while grown is /ɡɹəʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

group is recorded at frequency rank #241, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹuːp/. grown is at rank #2,158, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹəʊn/.

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 2399, this pair ranks #525,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of group vs grown

Shared letters: gor. Private to "group": pu. Private to "grown": nw.

"group" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "grown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • groupggroup · gorup · gropu · groupp · grroup · gruop · rgoup
  • grownggrown · gorwn · gronw · grownn · growwn · grrown · grwon · rgown

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "group" and "grown" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "group" is a noun and "grown" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "group" or "grown"?
"group" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #241 in our English list, against #2,158 for "grown". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list