Which to use
“played” is a verb and “player” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #590
- “played” frequency rank
- #660
- “player” frequency rank
- 1250
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | played | player |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of play | One that plays. |
Where the eye mixes played and player
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: played vs player
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: played is /pleɪd/ while player is /ˈpleɪɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “played” becomes r in “player”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
played is recorded at frequency rank #590, classified as averb, pronounced /pleɪd/. player is at rank #660, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpleɪɚ/.
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 1250, this pair ranks #527,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of played vs player
Shared letters: aelpy. Private to "played": d. Private to "player": r.
"played" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC · "player" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "played" and "player" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "played" vs "player" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "played" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "player" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #527,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "played" and "player" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "played 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 #527,795 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.