Which to use
“massed” and “missed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,823
- “massed” frequency rank
- #1,567
- “missed” frequency rank
- 37390
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | massed | missed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of mass | simple past and past participle of miss |
Where the eye mixes massed and missed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. massed and missed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: massed vs missed
A purely visual mix-up. massed (/mæst/) and missed (/mɪst/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “massed” becomes i in “missed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
massed is recorded at frequency rank #35,823, classified as averb, pronounced /mæst/. missed is at rank #1,567, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɪst/.
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 37390, this pair ranks #294,971 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of massed vs missed
Shared letters: dems. Private to "massed": a. Private to "missed": i.
"massed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "missed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "massed" for "missed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "massed" vs "missed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "massed" and "missed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "massed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "missed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,971 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "massed" and "missed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Masood vs massed". 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 #294,971 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.