Which to use
“pleased” is an adjective and “pleated” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,384
- “pleased” frequency rank
- #40,394
- “pleated” frequency rank
- 43778
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pleased | pleated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Happy, content. | simple past and past participle of pleat |
Where the eye mixes pleased and pleated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pleased and pleated follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pleased with pleated
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pleased is /pliːzd/ while pleated is /ˈpliːtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “pleased” becomes t in “pleated”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pleased is recorded at frequency rank #3,384, classified as anadj, pronounced /pliːzd/. 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 43778, this pair ranks #236,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pleased vs pleated
Shared letters: adelp. Private to "pleased": s. Private to "pleated": t.
"pleased" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "pleated" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pleased" and "pleated" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pleased" or "pleated"?
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 "pleased" 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 #236,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pleased" 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 #236,795 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.