Which to use
“parted” and “patted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,296
- “parted” frequency rank
- #37,148
- “patted” frequency rank
- 53444
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parted | patted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of part | simple past and past participle of pat |
Where the eye mixes parted and patted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. parted and patted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between parted and patted
A purely visual mix-up. parted (/ˈpɑɹtɪd/) 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 differ by a single letter - r in “parted” becomes t in “patted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parted is recorded at frequency rank #16,296, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpɑɹtɪd/. 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 53444, this pair ranks #148,909 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of parted vs patted
Shared letters: adept. Private to "parted": r. Private to "patted": -.
"parted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "patted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "parted" for "patted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "parted" or "patted"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "parted" and "patted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "parted" 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 #148,909 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parted" and "patted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pared vs patted". 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 #148,909 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.