Which to use
“payed” and “preyed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- #41,823
- “preyed” frequency rank
- 72734
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payed | preyed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of paid. | simple past and past participle of prey |
Letter map: payed vs preyed
Shared letters muted; letters that set payed and preyed apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. payed runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against preyed's 6 (CCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - payed / preyed
payed and preyed 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 72734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payed is recorded at frequency rank #30,911, classified as averb. preyed is at rank #41,823, 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 72734, this pair ranks #42,044 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of payed vs preyed
Shared letters: depy. Private to "payed": a. Private to "preyed": r.
"payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "preyed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "payed" and "preyed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "payed" vs "preyed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "payed" and "preyed". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "preyed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,044 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payed" and "preyed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "preyed vs pruned". 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 #42,044 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.