Which to use
“peaked” is an adjective and “prayed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,023
- “peaked” frequency rank
- #11,761
- “prayed” frequency rank
- 26784
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peaked | prayed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a peak or peaks. | simple past and past participle of pray |
Where the eye mixes peaked and prayed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between peaked and prayed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peaked is /piːkt/ while prayed is /pɹeɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26784, 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/. 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 26784, this pair ranks #384,101 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peaked vs prayed
Shared letters: adep. Private to "peaked": k. Private to "prayed": ry.
"peaked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "prayed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "peaked" and "prayed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "peaked" vs "prayed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
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 "prayed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,101 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peaked" and "prayed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prayed 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 #384,101 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.