Which to use
“painted” is a verb and “pitted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,968
- “painted” frequency rank
- #23,631
- “pitted” frequency rank
- 27599
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | painted | pitted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of paint | Having a surface marked by pits; pockmarked or alveolate. |
Letter map: painted vs pitted
Shared letters muted; letters that set painted and pitted apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. painted runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against pitted's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: painted vs pitted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: painted is averb and pittedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27599, 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/. pitted is at rank #23,631, tagged as anadj.
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 27599, this pair ranks #377,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of painted vs pitted
Shared letters: deipt. Private to "painted": an. Private to "pitted": -.
"painted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "pitted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "painted" and "pitted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "painted" or "pitted"?
Useful next steps
Pair "painted" vs "pitted" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "painted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pitted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #377,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "painted" and "pitted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pinter vs pitted". 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 #377,650 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.