Which to use
“payed” and “prayed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- #11,761
- “prayed” frequency rank
- 42672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payed | prayed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of paid. | simple past and past participle of pray |
Letter map: payed vs prayed
Shared letters muted; letters that set payed and prayed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Corpus notes: payed and prayed
payed and prayed 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 42672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payed is recorded at frequency rank #30,911, classified as averb. prayed is at rank #11,761, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹeɪd/.
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 42672, this pair ranks #247,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of payed vs prayed
Shared letters: adepy. Private to "payed": -. Private to "prayed": r.
"payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "prayed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "payed" for "prayed" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "payed" or "prayed" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "payed" vs "prayed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prayed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #247,131 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payed" and "prayed" 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 #247,131 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.