pleased vs pleated, What's the Difference?

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pleased and pleated apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

pleased

7 ch

pleated

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

pleased ← lpeased · pelased · plaesed · pleaesd · pleasde · pleasedd · pleassed · plesaed
pleated ← lpeated · pelated · plaeted · pleaetd · pleatde · pleatedd · pleatted · pletaed

Frequency comparison

pleased#3,384

pleated#40,394

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pleased" and "pleated" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pleased" is an adjective and "pleated" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "pleased" or "pleated"?

"pleased" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,384 in our English list, against #40,394 for "pleated". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering pleased vs pleated

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “pleased”; for a verb, it's “pleated”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pleased” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable