pedvspliedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ped is a noun, plied is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ped” is a noun and “plied” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,872
“ped” frequency rank
#49,557
“plied” frequency rank
85429
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ped plied
Definition A pedestrian. simple past and past participle of ply

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ped and plied apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
ped
5 ch
plied

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ped is /pɛd/ while plied is /plaɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ped is recorded at frequency rank #35,872, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɛd/. plied is at rank #49,557, tagged as averb, pronounced /plaɪd/.

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 85429, this pair ranks #10,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ped vs plied

Shared letters: dep. Private to "ped": -. Private to "plied": il.

"ped" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "plied" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pliedlpied · pleid · plide · pliedd · pllied · pplied

Frequency comparison

ped#35,872
plied#49,557

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ped" and "plied" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ped" is a noun and "plied" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ped" or "plied"?
"ped" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,872 in our English list, against #49,557 for "plied". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ped vs plied

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “ped”; for a verb, it's “plied”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ped” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list