paintedvspartedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“painted” and “parted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,968
“painted” frequency rank
#16,296
“parted” frequency rank
20264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature painted parted
Definition simple past and past participle of paint simple past and past participle of part

Where the eye mixes painted and parted

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
painted
6 ch
parted

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. painted (/ˈpeɪn.tɪd/) and parted (/ˈpɑɹtɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

painted is recorded at frequency rank #3,968, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpeɪn.tɪd/. parted is at rank #16,296, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɑɹtɪd/.

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 20264, this pair ranks #432,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of painted vs parted

Shared letters: adept. Private to "painted": in. Private to "parted": r.

"painted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "parted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paintedapinted · painetd · painnted · paintde · paintedd · paintted · paitned · panited
  • partedaprted · paretd · parrted · partde · partedd · partted · patred · pparted

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "painted" and "parted" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɪn.tɪd/ versus /ˈpɑɹtɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "painted" or "parted"?
"painted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,968 in our English list, against #16,296 for "parted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "painted" and "parted". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "painted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "parted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #432,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "painted" and "parted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parley vs parted". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list