Which to use
“growl” is a noun and “growled” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,179
- “growl” frequency rank
- #44,821
- “growled” frequency rank
- 69000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | growl | growled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A deep, rumbling, threatening sound made in the throat by an animal. | simple past and past participle of growl |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set growl and growled apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
growl and growled form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “growl” sits inside “growled” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
growl is recorded at frequency rank #24,179, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊl/. 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 69000, this pair ranks #56,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "growl" and "growled" be used interchangeably?
Remembering growl vs growled
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “growl”; for a verb, it's “growled”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “growl” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable