Which to use
“licked” is an adjective and “liken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,692
- “licked” frequency rank
- #48,864
- “liken” frequency rank
- 69556
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licked | liken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having been the target of a lick; touched by a tongue. | Followed by to or (archaic) unto: to regard or state that (someone or something) is like another person or thing; to compare. |
Where the eye mixes licked and liken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. licked runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against liken's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between licked and liken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: licked is /lɪkt/ while liken is /ˈlaɪk(ə)n/. 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 69556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
licked is recorded at frequency rank #20,692, classified as anadj, pronounced /lɪkt/. liken is at rank #48,864, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈlaɪk(ə)n/.
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 69556, this pair ranks #54,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of licked vs liken
Shared letters: eikl. Private to "licked": cd. Private to "liken": n.
"licked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "liken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "licked" for "liken" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "licked" or "liken" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "licked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "liken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licked" and "liken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liken vs linker". 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 #54,062 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.