Which to use
“paved” is an adjective and “played” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,651
- “paved” frequency rank
- #590
- “played” frequency rank
- 13241
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paved | played |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Covered in pavement; having a hard surface, as of concrete or asphalt. | simple past and past participle of play |
Where the eye mixes paved and played
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between paved and played
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paved is /peɪvd/ while played is /pleɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paved is recorded at frequency rank #12,651, classified as anadj, pronounced /peɪvd/. played is at rank #590, tagged as averb, pronounced /pleɪd/.
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 13241, this pair ranks #476,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paved vs played
Shared letters: adep. Private to "paved": v. Private to "played": ly.
"paved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "played" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "paved" and "played" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "paved" vs "played" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "paved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "played" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #476,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paved" and "played" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paved vs plied". 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 #476,948 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.