guidedvsgunnedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“guided” and “gunned” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,474
“guided” frequency rank
#24,774
“gunned” frequency rank
31248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guided gunned
Definition simple past and past participle of guide simple past and past participle of gun

Where the eye mixes guided and gunned

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. guided (CVVCVC) and gunned (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
guided
6 ch
gunned

Look-alike desk: guided vs gunned

A purely visual mix-up. guided (/ˈɡaɪdɪd/) and gunned (/ɡʌnd/) 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 31248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guided is recorded at frequency rank #6,474, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɡaɪdɪd/. gunned is at rank #24,774, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡʌnd/.

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 31248, this pair ranks #347,759 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of guided vs gunned

Shared letters: degu. Private to "guided": i. Private to "gunned": n.

"guided" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "gunned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guided ← gguided · giuded · gudied · guidded · guidedd · guiedd · ugided
  • gunned ← ggunned · gnuned · guned · gunend · gunnde · gunnedd · ugnned

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "guided" and "gunned" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɡaɪdɪd/ versus /ɡʌnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "guided" vs "gunned" - which ranks higher?
"guided" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,474 in our English list, against #24,774 for "gunned". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guided" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gunned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,759 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guided" and "gunned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gunned vs gunnery". 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 #347,759 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list