Which to use
“picked” and “piqued” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,956
- “picked” frequency rank
- #40,391
- “piqued” frequency rank
- 42347
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picked | piqued |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pick | simple past and past participle of pique |
Where the eye mixes picked and piqued
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. picked (CVCCVC) and piqued (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: picked vs piqued
A purely visual mix-up. picked (/pɪkt/) and piqued (/piːkt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
picked is recorded at frequency rank #1,956, classified as averb, pronounced /pɪkt/. 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 42347, this pair ranks #250,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of picked vs piqued
Shared letters: deip. Private to "picked": ck. Private to "piqued": qu.
"picked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "piqued" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "picked" and "piqued" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "picked" or "piqued"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "picked" 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 #250,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picked" and "piqued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peeked vs piqued". 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 #250,068 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.