Which to use
“licked” is an adjective and “looked” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,692
- “licked” frequency rank
- #811
- “looked” frequency rank
- 21503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licked | looked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having been the target of a lick; touched by a tongue. | simple past and past participle of look |
Where the eye mixes licked and looked
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. licked (CVCCVC) and looked (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: licked vs looked
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: licked is /lɪkt/ while looked is /lʊkt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21503, 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/. looked is at rank #811, tagged as averb, pronounced /lʊkt/.
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 21503, this pair ranks #423,450 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of licked vs looked
Shared letters: dekl. Private to "licked": ci. Private to "looked": o.
"licked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "looked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "licked" and "looked" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "licked" or "looked" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "licked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "looked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,450 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licked" and "looked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "licked 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 #423,450 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.