Which to use
“panned” and “patted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,319
- “panned” frequency rank
- #37,148
- “patted” frequency rank
- 65467
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | panned | patted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pan | simple past and past participle of pat |
Where the eye mixes panned and patted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. panned and patted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses panned with patted
A purely visual mix-up. panned (/pænd/) and patted (/ˈpatɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
panned is recorded at frequency rank #28,319, classified as averb, pronounced /pænd/. patted is at rank #37,148, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpatɪd/.
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 65467, this pair ranks #72,594 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of panned vs patted
Shared letters: adep. Private to "panned": n. Private to "patted": t.
"panned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "patted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "panned" and "patted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "panned" or "patted"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "panned" and "patted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "panned" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "patted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,594 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "panned" and "patted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panned vs pruned". 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 #72,594 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.