Which to use
“prevent” and “prevented” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,701
- “prevent” frequency rank
- #6,171
- “prevented” frequency rank
- 7872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prevent | prevented |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To stop (an outcome); to keep from (doing something). | simple past and past participle of prevent |
Where the eye mixes prevent and prevented
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between prevent and prevented
A purely visual mix-up. prevent (/pɹɪˈvɛnt/) and prevented (/pɹɪˈvɛntɪd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “prevent” sits inside “prevented”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prevent is recorded at frequency rank #1,701, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹɪˈvɛnt/. prevented is at rank #6,171, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹɪˈvɛntɪd/.
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 7872, this pair ranks #505,193 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of prevent vs prevented
Shared letters: enprtv. Private to "prevent": -. Private to "prevented": d.
"prevent" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "prevented" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "prevent" for "prevented" ever safe?
Which is more common, "prevent" or "prevented"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "prevent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prevented" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #505,193 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prevent" and "prevented" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "precept vs prevent". 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 #505,193 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.