Which to use
“played” and “preyed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #590
- “played” frequency rank
- #41,823
- “preyed” frequency rank
- 42413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | played | preyed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of play | simple past and past participle of prey |
Where the eye mixes played and preyed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses played with preyed
A purely visual mix-up. played (/pleɪd/) and preyed (/pɹeɪd/) 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 42413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
played is recorded at frequency rank #590, classified as averb, pronounced /pleɪd/. preyed is at rank #41,823, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹeɪd/.
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 42413, this pair ranks #249,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of played vs preyed
Shared letters: depy. Private to "played": al. Private to "preyed": r.
"played" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC · "preyed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "played" and "preyed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "played" vs "preyed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "preyed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #249,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "played" and "preyed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "preyed vs pruned". 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 #249,449 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.