producevsproducedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,733
“produce” frequency rank
#1,436
“produced” frequency rank
3169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature produce produced
Definition To bring forth, to yield, make, manufacture, or otherwise generate. simple past and past participle of produce

Where the eye mixes produce and produced

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
produce
8 ch
produced

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. produce (/pɹəˈd͡ʒuːs/) and produced (/pɹəˈd͡ʒuːst/) 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 extra letter(s) - “produce” sits inside “produced”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

produce is recorded at frequency rank #1,733, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹəˈd͡ʒuːs/. produced is at rank #1,436, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹəˈd͡ʒuːst/.

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 3169, this pair ranks #522,898 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of produce vs produced

Shared letters: cdeopru. Private to "produce": -. Private to "produced": -.

"produce" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "produced" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • produceporduce · pproduce · prdouce · prodcue · prodduce · producce · produec · proudce
  • producedporduced · pproduced · prdouced · prodcued · prodduced · producced · producde · producedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "produce" and "produced" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɹəˈd͡ʒuːs/ versus /pɹəˈd͡ʒuːst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "produce" or "produced"?
"produced" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,436 in our English list, against #1,733 for "produce". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list