Which to use
“padded” is an adjective and “payed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,891
- “padded” frequency rank
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- 52802
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | padded | payed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having padding. | Obsolete spelling of paid. |
Letter map: padded vs payed
Shared letters muted; letters that set padded and payed apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for padded / payed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: padded is anadjective and payedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
padded is recorded at frequency rank #21,891, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpædɪd/. payed is at rank #30,911, tagged as averb.
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 52802, this pair ranks #154,094 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of padded vs payed
Shared letters: adep. Private to "padded": -. Private to "payed": y.
"padded" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "padded" for "payed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "padded" vs "payed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "padded" and "payed". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "padded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,094 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "padded" and "payed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payed vs plied". 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 #154,094 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.