Which to use
“mow” and “mowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,486
- “mow” frequency rank
- #38,509
- “mowed” frequency rank
- 63995
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mow | mowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cut down grass or crops. | simple past and past participle of mow |
Where the eye mixes mow and mowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mow runs 3 letters (CVC) against mowed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses mow with mowed
A purely visual mix-up. mow (/məʊ/) and mowed (/məʊd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “mow” sits inside “mowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mow is recorded at frequency rank #25,486, classified as averb, pronounced /məʊ/. mowed is at rank #38,509, tagged as averb, pronounced /məʊd/.
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 63995, this pair ranks #80,006 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mow vs mowed
Shared letters: mow. Private to "mow": -. Private to "mowed": de.
"mow" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "mowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- mowed ← mmowed · moewd · mowde · mowedd · mowwed · mwoed · omwed
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mow" for "mowed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mow" vs "mowed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,006 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mow" and "mowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mowed vs Mowers". 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 #80,006 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.