Which to use
“plied” and “plowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,557
- “plied” frequency rank
- #31,708
- “plowed” frequency rank
- 81265
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plied | plowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of ply | simple past and past participle of plow |
Where the eye mixes plied and plowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. plied runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against plowed's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: plied vs plowed
A purely visual mix-up. plied (/plaɪd/) and plowed (/plaʊd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plied is recorded at frequency rank #49,557, classified as averb, pronounced /plaɪd/. plowed is at rank #31,708, tagged as averb, pronounced /plaʊd/.
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 81265, this pair ranks #18,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of plied vs plowed
Shared letters: delp. Private to "plied": i. Private to "plowed": ow.
"plied" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "plowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "plied" and "plowed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "plied" or "plowed"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "plied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #18,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plied" and "plowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piet 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 #18,032 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.