# pained vs penned

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### pained
*adjective · IPA /peɪnd/ · frequency rank #32,111*
In pain, especially in an emotional sense.

### penned
*verb · IPA /pɛnd/ · frequency rank #17,690*
simple past and past participle of pen

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/pained-vs-penned