preyedvspricedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“preyed” and “priced” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,823
“preyed” frequency rank
#7,485
“priced” frequency rank
49308
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature preyed priced
Definition simple past and past participle of prey simple past and past participle of price

Where the eye mixes preyed and priced

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
preyed
6 ch
priced

Look-alike desk: preyed vs priced

A purely visual mix-up. preyed (/pɹeɪd/) and priced (/pɹaɪst/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

preyed is recorded at frequency rank #41,823, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹeɪd/. priced is at rank #7,485, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹaɪst/.

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 49308, this pair ranks #184,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of preyed vs priced

Shared letters: depr. Private to "preyed": y. Private to "priced": ci.

"preyed" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC  ·  "priced" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preyedperyed · ppreyed · preeyd · preyde · preyedd · preyyed · prreyed · pryeed
  • pricedpirced · ppriced · prcied · pricced · pricde · pricedd · priecd · prriced

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "preyed" and "priced" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɹeɪd/ versus /pɹaɪst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "preyed" vs "priced" - which ranks higher?
"priced" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,485 in our English list, against #41,823 for "preyed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "preyed" and "priced" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "preyed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "priced" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "preyed" and "priced" 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 #184,897 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