Which to use
“persuade” and “persuaded” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,379
- “persuade” frequency rank
- #10,106
- “persuaded” frequency rank
- 19485
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | persuade | persuaded |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. | simple past and past participle of persuade |
Where the eye mixes persuade and persuaded
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. persuade (/pə(ɹ)ˈsweɪd/) and persuaded (/pɚˈsweɪdɪd/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “persuade” sits inside “persuaded”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
persuade is recorded at frequency rank #9,379, classified as averb, pronounced /pə(ɹ)ˈsweɪd/. persuaded is at rank #10,106, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɚˈsweɪdɪd/.
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 19485, this pair ranks #437,827 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of persuade vs persuaded
Shared letters: adeprsu. Private to "persuade": -. Private to "persuaded": -.
"persuade" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "persuaded" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC