Which to use
“precede” and “preyed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,642
- “precede” frequency rank
- #41,823
- “preyed” frequency rank
- 76465
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | precede | preyed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To go before, go in front of. | simple past and past participle of prey |
Where the eye mixes precede and preyed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. precede runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against preyed's 6 (CCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between precede and preyed
A purely visual mix-up. precede (/pɹɪˈsiːd/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
precede is recorded at frequency rank #34,642, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹɪˈsiːd/. 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 76465, this pair ranks #30,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of precede vs preyed
Shared letters: depr. Private to "precede": c. Private to "preyed": y.
"precede" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "preyed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "precede" and "preyed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "precede" or "preyed" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "precede" and "preyed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "precede" 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 #30,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "precede" 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 #30,040 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.