Which to use
“pick” is a noun and “picked” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #881
- “pick” frequency rank
- #1,956
- “picked” frequency rank
- 2837
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pick | picked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tool used for digging; a pickaxe. | simple past and past participle of pick |
Where the eye mixes pick and picked
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pick is /pɪk/ while picked is /pɪkt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “pick” sits inside “picked”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pick is recorded at frequency rank #881, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɪk/. picked is at rank #1,956, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɪkt/.
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 2837, this pair ranks #523,891 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pick vs picked
Shared letters: cikp. Private to "pick": -. Private to "picked": de.
"pick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "picked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC