Which to use
“pained” is an adjective and “payed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,111
- “pained” frequency rank
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- 63022
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pained | payed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In pain, especially in an emotional sense. | Obsolete spelling of paid. |
Letter map: pained vs payed
Shared letters muted; letters that set pained and payed apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - pained and payed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pained is anadjective and payedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pained is recorded at frequency rank #32,111, classified as anadj, pronounced /peɪnd/. 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 63022, this pair ranks #85,301 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pained vs payed
Shared letters: adep. Private to "pained": in. Private to "payed": y.
"pained" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pained" and "payed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pained" vs "payed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pained" and "payed".
- Full dictionary entry for "pained" 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 #85,301 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pained" and "payed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pained 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 #85,301 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.