Which to use
“peaked” is an adjective and “pleaded” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,023
- “peaked” frequency rank
- #11,939
- “pleaded” frequency rank
- 26962
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peaked | pleaded |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a peak or peaks. | simple past and past participle of plead |
Where the eye mixes peaked and pleaded
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between peaked and pleaded
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peaked is /piːkt/ while pleaded is /ˈpliːdɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26962, 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/. pleaded is at rank #11,939, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpliːdɪd/.
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 26962, this pair ranks #382,694 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peaked vs pleaded
Shared letters: adep. Private to "peaked": k. Private to "pleaded": l.
"peaked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "pleaded" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peaked" for "pleaded" ever safe?
Which is more common, "peaked" or "pleaded"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "peaked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pleaded" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,694 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peaked" and "pleaded" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peaked vs peeked". 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 #382,694 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.