Which to use
“humble” and “humbled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,973
- “humble” frequency rank
- #20,669
- “humbled” frequency rank
- 26642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | humble | humbled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming. | (usually qualifying a first-person pronoun) Grateful for the support of others, touched; honored, flattered. |
Letter map: humble vs humbled
Shared letters muted; letters that set humble and humbled apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Spelling & dictionary notes on humble vs humbled
humble and humbled are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “humble” sits inside “humbled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
humble is recorded at frequency rank #5,973, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈhʌmbəl/. humbled is at rank #20,669, tagged as anadj.
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 26642, this pair ranks #385,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of humble vs humbled
Shared letters: behlmu. Private to "humble": -. Private to "humbled": d.
"humble" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "humbled" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "humble" and "humbled" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "humble" or "humbled"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "humble" and "humbled". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "humble" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "humbled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "humble" and "humbled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hobbled vs humbled". 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 #385,180 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.