keptvsKopConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,086
“kept” frequency rank
#48,852
“Kop” frequency rank
49938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kept Kop
Definition simple past and past participle of keep A terrace at a football ground, originally for standing spectators, though all-seater stadia have been mandatory for larger UK clubs since 1994.

Where the eye mixes kept and Kop

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
kept
3 ch
Kop

Look-alike desk: kept vs Kop

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kept is /ˈkɛpt/ while Kop is /kɒp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kept is recorded at frequency rank #1,086, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkɛpt/. Kop is at rank #48,852, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɒp/.

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 49938, this pair ranks #178,875 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kept vs Kop

Shared letters: kp. Private to "kept": et. Private to "Kop": o.

"kept" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Kop" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • keptekpt · keppt · keptt · ketp · kkept · kpet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kept" for "Kop" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kept" is a verb and "Kop" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kept" or "Kop"?
"kept" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,086 in our English list, against #48,852 for "Kop". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kept" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,875 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kept" and "Kop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kno vs Kop". 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 #178,875 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