Which to use
“peaked” is an adjective and “piqued” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,023
- “peaked” frequency rank
- #40,391
- “piqued” frequency rank
- 55414
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peaked | piqued |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a peak or peaks. | simple past and past participle of pique |
Same sound, different letters: peaked vs piqued
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. peaked (CVVCVC) and piqued (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Ear matches; page differs - peaked and piqued
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: peaked and piqued carry the same recorded pronunciation, /piːkt/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peaked is recorded at frequency rank #15,023, classified as anadj, pronounced /piːkt/. piqued is at rank #40,391, tagged as averb, pronounced /piːkt/.
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 55414, this pair ranks #133,806 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of peaked vs piqued
Shared letters: dep. Private to "peaked": ak. Private to "piqued": iqu.
"peaked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "piqued" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "peaked" and "piqued" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "peaked" or "piqued" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "peaked" / "piqued". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "peaked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqued" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,806 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peaked" and "piqued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peeked vs piqued". 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 #133,806 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.