lashedvsloathedTell them apart

Quick tell: lashed is a verb, loathed is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,609
“lashed” frequency rank
#40,782
“loathed” frequency rank
69391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lashed loathed
Definition simple past and past participle of lash Nonstandard form of loath.

Letter map: lashed vs loathed

Shared letters muted; letters that set lashed and loathed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
lashed
7 ch
loathed

Part-of-speech tell for lashed / loathed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lashed is averb and loathedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lashed is recorded at frequency rank #28,609, classified as averb, pronounced /læʃt/. loathed is at rank #40,782, 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 69391, this pair ranks #54,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lashed vs loathed

Shared letters: adehl. Private to "lashed": s. Private to "loathed": ot.

"lashed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "loathed" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lashedalshed · lahsed · lasehd · lashde · lashedd · lashhed · lasshed · llashed
  • loathedlaothed · lloathed · loahted · loatehd · loathde · loathedd · loathhed · loatthed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lashed" and "loathed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lashed" is a verb and "loathed" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lashed" vs "loathed" - which ranks higher?
"lashed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,609 in our English list, against #40,782 for "loathed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lashed" and "loathed".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lashed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loathed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,763 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lashed" and "loathed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loath vs loathed". 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 #54,763 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