Which to use
“mute” and “muted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,919
- “mute” frequency rank
- #16,759
- “muted” frequency rank
- 28678
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mute | muted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not having the power of speech; dumb. | Not expressed strongly or openly; subdued and understated |
Letter map: mute vs muted
Shared letters muted; letters that set mute and muted apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Pair insight - mute / muted
mute and muted are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mute” sits inside “muted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mute is recorded at frequency rank #11,919, classified as anadj, pronounced /mjuːt/. muted is at rank #16,759, tagged as anadj.
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 28678, this pair ranks #369,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mute vs muted
Shared letters: emtu. Private to "mute": -. Private to "muted": d.
"mute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "muted" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mute" for "muted" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mute" vs "muted" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mute" and "muted".
- Full dictionary entry for "mute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "muted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mute" and "muted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mudd vs muted". 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 #369,180 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.