Which to use
“obliterate” is a verb and “obliterated” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,601
- “obliterate” frequency rank
- #26,532
- “obliterated” frequency rank
- 64133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obliterate | obliterated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To destroy (someone or something) completely, leaving no trace; to annihilate, to wipe out. | Destroyed; (loosely) broken beyond repair. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set obliterate and obliterated apart are highlighted. They share 10 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obliterate is /əˈblɪtəɹeɪt/ while obliterated is /əˈblɪtəɹeɪtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “obliterate” sits inside “obliterated”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obliterate is recorded at frequency rank #37,601, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈblɪtəɹeɪt/. obliterated is at rank #26,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈblɪtəɹeɪtɪd/.
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 64133, this pair ranks #79,317 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of obliterate vs obliterated
Shared letters: abeilort. Private to "obliterate": -. Private to "obliterated": d.
"obliterate" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCV · "obliterated" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- obliterate ← boliterate · obbliterate · obilterate · oblietrate · oblitearte · obliteraet · obliteratte · obliterrate
- obliterated ← boliterated · obbliterated · obilterated · oblietrated · oblitearted · obliteraetd · obliteratde · obliteratedd