poopedvspottedConfusable pair

Quick tell: pooped is a adjective, potted is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pooped” is an adjective and “potted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,796
“pooped” frequency rank
#31,298
“potted” frequency rank
65094
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pooped potted
Definition Tired; exhausted. simple past and past participle of pot

Letter map: pooped vs potted

Shared letters muted; letters that set pooped and potted apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. pooped (CVVCVC) and potted (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
pooped
6 ch
potted

Grammar separator: pooped vs potted

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pooped is anadjective and pottedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pooped is recorded at frequency rank #33,796, classified as anadj, pronounced /pupt/. potted is at rank #31,298, tagged as averb.

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 65094, this pair ranks #74,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pooped vs potted

Shared letters: deop. Private to "pooped": -. Private to "potted": t.

"pooped" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "potted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pooped ← opoped · pooepd · poopde · poopedd · poopped · poped · popoed · ppooped
  • potted ← optted · poted · potetd · pottde · pottedd · ppotted · ptoted

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pooped" and "potted" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pooped" is an adjective and "potted" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "pooped" or "potted" show up more?
"potted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,298 in our English list, against #33,796 for "pooped". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "pooped" and "potted". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pooped" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pooped" and "potted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pooped vs pooper". 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 #74,462 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list