Which to use
“perish” and “perished” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,162
- “perish” frequency rank
- #19,662
- “perished” frequency rank
- 38824
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perish | perished |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To decay and disappear; to waste away to nothing. | simple past and past participle of perish |
Where the eye mixes perish and perished
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. perish runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against perished's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses perish with perished
A purely visual mix-up. perish (/ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/) and perished (/ˈpɛɹɪʃt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “perish” sits inside “perished”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perish is recorded at frequency rank #19,162, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/. perished is at rank #19,662, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛɹɪʃt/.
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 38824, this pair ranks #282,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of perish vs perished
Shared letters: ehiprs. Private to "perish": -. Private to "perished": d.
"perish" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "perished" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "perish" and "perished" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "perish" or "perished"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "perish" and "perished" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "perish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perished" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perish" and "perished" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perish vs purist". 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 #282,365 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.