Which to use
“guessed” is a verb and “guesses” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,857
- “guessed” frequency rank
- #22,101
- “guesses” frequency rank
- 32958
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | guessed | guesses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of guess | plural of guess |
Where the eye mixes guessed and guesses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. guessed and guesses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between guessed and guesses
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: guessed is /ɡɛst/ while guesses is /ˈɡɛsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “guessed” becomes s in “guesses”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32958, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
guessed is recorded at frequency rank #10,857, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɛst/. guesses is at rank #22,101, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɛsɪz/.
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 32958, this pair ranks #333,448 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of guessed vs guesses
Shared letters: egsu. Private to "guessed": d. Private to "guesses": -.
"guessed" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "guesses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "guessed" and "guesses" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "guessed" or "guesses"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "guessed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "guesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,448 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "guessed" and "guesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gassed vs guessed". 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 #333,448 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.