Which to use
“privilege” is a noun and “privileged” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,156
- “privilege” frequency rank
- #9,512
- “privileged” frequency rank
- 14668
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | privilege | privileged |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An exemption from certain laws granted by the Pope. | simple past and past participle of privilege |
Where the eye mixes privilege and privileged
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between privilege and privileged
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: privilege is /ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/ while privileged is /ˈpɹɪv(ɪ)lɪd͡ʒd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “privilege” sits inside “privileged”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
privilege is recorded at frequency rank #5,156, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɪv.(ɪ.)lɪd͡ʒ/. privileged is at rank #9,512, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɹɪv(ɪ)lɪd͡ʒd/.
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 14668, this pair ranks #468,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of privilege vs privileged
Shared letters: egilprv. Private to "privilege": -. Private to "privileged": d.
"privilege" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV · "privileged" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- privilege ← pirvilege · pprivilege · priivlege · privielge · privileeg · privilegge · privilgee · privillege
- privileged ← pirvileged · pprivileged · priivleged · privielged · privileegd · privilegde · privilegedd · privilegged
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "privilege" and "privileged" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "privilege" or "privileged" show up more?
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 "privilege" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "privileged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #468,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "privilege" and "privileged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "privileged vs privileges". 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 #468,668 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.