Which to use
“peeked” and “piqued” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,994
- “peeked” frequency rank
- #40,391
- “piqued” frequency rank
- 85385
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peeked | piqued |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of peek | simple past and past participle of pique |
Same sound, different letters: peeked vs piqued
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. peeked (CVVCVC) and piqued (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - peeked / piqued
This is the hard kind. peeked and piqued are pronounced identically (/piːkt/) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peeked is recorded at frequency rank #44,994, classified as averb, 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 85385, this pair ranks #10,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of peeked vs piqued
Shared letters: dep. Private to "peeked": k. Private to "piqued": iqu.
"peeked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "piqued" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "peeked" and "piqued" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "peeked" vs "piqued" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "peeked" / "piqued". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "peeked" 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 #10,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peeked" and "piqued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peeked vs peeks". 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 #10,463 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.