Which to use
“prey” is a noun and “preyed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,377
- “prey” frequency rank
- #41,823
- “preyed” frequency rank
- 49200
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prey | preyed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That which is or may be seized by animals to be devoured. | simple past and past participle of prey |
Where the eye mixes prey and preyed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: prey vs preyed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prey is /pɹeɪ/ while preyed is /pɹeɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “prey” sits inside “preyed”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prey is recorded at frequency rank #7,377, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/. 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 49200, this pair ranks #185,851 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of prey vs preyed
Shared letters: epry. Private to "prey": -. Private to "preyed": d.
"prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "preyed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "prey" and "preyed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "prey" or "preyed" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "prey" and "preyed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "prey" 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 #185,851 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prey" 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 #185,851 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.