Which to use
“placed” and “plied” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,491
- “placed” frequency rank
- #49,557
- “plied” frequency rank
- 51048
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | placed | plied |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of place | simple past and past participle of ply |
Where the eye mixes placed and plied
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses placed with plied
A purely visual mix-up. placed (/pleɪst/) and plied (/plaɪd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
placed is recorded at frequency rank #1,491, classified as averb, pronounced /pleɪst/. plied is at rank #49,557, tagged as averb, pronounced /plaɪd/.
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 51048, this pair ranks #168,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of placed vs plied
Shared letters: delp. Private to "placed": ac. Private to "plied": i.
"placed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "plied" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "placed" for "plied" ever safe?
Which is more common, "placed" or "plied"?
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 "placed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plied" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #168,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "placed" and "plied" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piet vs plied". 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 #168,845 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.