lacedvsloadedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: laced is a adjective, loaded is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laced” is an adjective and “loaded” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,882
“laced” frequency rank
#4,687
“loaded” frequency rank
24569
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laced loaded
Definition Fastened with lace or laces (light cordage). simple past and past participle of load

Where the eye mixes laced and loaded

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
laced
6 ch
loaded

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laced is /leɪst/ while loaded is /ˈləʊ.dəd/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laced is recorded at frequency rank #19,882, classified as anadj, pronounced /leɪst/. loaded is at rank #4,687, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈləʊ.dəd/.

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 24569, this pair ranks #401,001 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of laced vs loaded

Shared letters: adel. Private to "laced": c. Private to "loaded": o.

"laced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "loaded" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacedalced · lacced · lacde · lacedd · laecd · lcaed · llaced
  • loadedlaoded · lloaded · loadde · loadded · loadedd · loaedd · lodaed · oladed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laced" and "loaded" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laced" is an adjective and "loaded" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "laced" or "loaded"?
"loaded" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,687 in our English list, against #19,882 for "laced". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "laced" and "loaded". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loaded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,001 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laced" and "loaded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laced vs laver". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list