Which to use
“nail” is a noun and “nailed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,064
- “nail” frequency rank
- #10,090
- “nailed” frequency rank
- 15154
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nail | nailed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The thin, horny plate at the ends of fingers and toes on humans and some other animals. | simple past and past participle of nail |
Where the eye mixes nail and nailed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. nail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against nailed's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between nail and nailed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nail is /neɪl/ while nailed is /neɪld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “nail” sits inside “nailed”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nail is recorded at frequency rank #5,064, classified as anoun, pronounced /neɪl/. nailed is at rank #10,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /neɪld/.
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 15154, this pair ranks #465,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of nail vs nailed
Shared letters: ailn. Private to "nail": -. Private to "nailed": de.
"nail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "nailed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "nail" and "nailed" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "nail" or "nailed"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "nail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nailed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #465,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nail" and "nailed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nail vs NPL". 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 #465,750 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.