Which to use
“payed” and “plied” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- #49,557
- “plied” frequency rank
- 80468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payed | plied |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of paid. | simple past and past participle of ply |
Letter map: payed vs plied
Shared letters muted; letters that set payed and plied apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. payed (CVVVC) and plied (CCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Spelling & dictionary notes on payed vs plied
payed and plied 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payed is recorded at frequency rank #30,911, classified as averb. plied is at rank #49,557, tagged as averb, pronounced /plaɪd/.
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 80468, this pair ranks #19,732 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of payed vs plied
Shared letters: dep. Private to "payed": ay. Private to "plied": il.
"payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "plied" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "payed" and "plied" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "payed" vs "plied" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "payed" and "plied".
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plied" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,732 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payed" and "plied" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piet 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 #19,732 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.