Which to use
“looked” is a verb and “looks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #811
- “looked” frequency rank
- #436
- “looks” frequency rank
- 1247
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | looked | looks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of look | plural of look |
Where the eye mixes looked and looks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: looked is /lʊkt/ while looks is /lʊks/. 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 1247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
looked is recorded at frequency rank #811, classified as averb, pronounced /lʊkt/. looks is at rank #436, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʊks/.
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 1247, this pair ranks #527,799 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of looked vs looks
Shared letters: klo. Private to "looked": de. Private to "looks": s.
"looked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "looks" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC