Which to use
“payed” and “played” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- #590
- “played” frequency rank
- 31501
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payed | played |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of paid. | simple past and past participle of play |
Letter map: payed vs played
Shared letters muted; letters that set payed and played apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Spelling & dictionary notes on payed vs played
payed and played are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31501, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payed is recorded at frequency rank #30,911, classified as averb. 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 31501, this pair ranks #345,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of payed vs played
Shared letters: adepy. Private to "payed": -. Private to "played": l.
"payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "played" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "payed" for "played" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "payed" or "played" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "payed" and "played". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" 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 #345,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payed" and "played" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payed 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 #345,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.