plantedvspleatedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“planted” and “pleated” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,724
“planted” frequency rank
#40,394
“pleated” frequency rank
47118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planted pleated
Definition simple past and past participle of plant simple past and past participle of pleat

Where the eye mixes planted and pleated

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
planted
7 ch
pleated

Visual trap between planted and pleated

A purely visual mix-up. planted (/ˈplɑːntɪd/) and pleated (/ˈpliːtɪd/) 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 47118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planted is recorded at frequency rank #6,724, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈplɑːntɪd/. pleated is at rank #40,394, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpliːtɪd/.

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 47118, this pair ranks #205,409 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of planted vs pleated

Shared letters: adelpt. Private to "planted": n. Private to "pleated": -.

"planted" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "pleated" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • plantedlpanted · palnted · planetd · plannted · plantde · plantedd · plantted · platned
  • pleatedlpeated · pelated · plaeted · pleaetd · pleatde · pleatedd · pleatted · pletaed

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "planted" and "pleated" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈplɑːntɪd/ versus /ˈpliːtɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "planted" or "pleated" show up more?
"planted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,724 in our English list, against #40,394 for "pleated". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pleated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,409 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planted" and "pleated" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pleaser vs pleated". 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 #205,409 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list