Which to use
“placed” and “plowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,491
- “placed” frequency rank
- #31,708
- “plowed” frequency rank
- 33199
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | placed | plowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of place | simple past and past participle of plow |
Where the eye mixes placed and plowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses placed with plowed
A purely visual mix-up. placed (/pleɪst/) and plowed (/plaʊd/) 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 33199, 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/. plowed is at rank #31,708, tagged as averb, pronounced /plaʊd/.
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 33199, this pair ranks #331,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of placed vs plowed
Shared letters: delp. Private to "placed": ac. Private to "plowed": ow.
"placed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "plowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "placed" and "plowed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "placed" or "plowed"?
After this comparison
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 "plowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #331,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "placed" and "plowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plied vs plowed". 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 #331,469 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.