performedvsperfumedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: performed is a verb, perfumed is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“performed” is a verb and “perfumed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,122
“performed” frequency rank
#44,996
“perfumed” frequency rank
47118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature performed perfumed
Definition simple past and past participle of perform Scented, having been given a pleasant smell.

Letter map: performed vs perfumed

Shared letters muted; letters that set performed and perfumed apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

9 ch
performed
8 ch
perfumed

Part-of-speech tell for performed / perfumed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: performed is averb and perfumedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

performed is recorded at frequency rank #2,122, classified as averb, pronounced /pəˈfɔːmd/. perfumed is at rank #44,996, tagged as anadj.

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 47118, this pair ranks #205,409 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of performed vs perfumed

Shared letters: defmpr. Private to "performed": o. Private to "perfumed": u.

"performed" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "perfumed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • performedeprformed · pefrormed · perfformed · perfomred · perforemd · performde · performedd · performmed
  • perfumedeprfumed · pefrumed · perffumed · perfmued · perfuemd · perfumde · perfumedd · perfummed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "performed" and "perfumed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "performed" is a verb and "perfumed" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "performed" or "perfumed" show up more?
"performed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,122 in our English list, against #44,996 for "perfumed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "performed" vs "perfumed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "performed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perfumed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,409 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "performed" and "perfumed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perfume vs perfumed". 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 #205,409 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list