Which to use
“promised” is an adjective and “prompted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,079
- “promised” frequency rank
- #8,593
- “prompted” frequency rank
- 11672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | promised | prompted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Predicted; expected; anticipated. | simple past and past participle of prompt |
Where the eye mixes promised and prompted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between promised and prompted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: promised is /ˈpɹɒm.ɪst/ while prompted is /ˈpɹɑmptɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
promised is recorded at frequency rank #3,079, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɹɒm.ɪst/. prompted is at rank #8,593, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɹɑmptɪd/.
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 11672, this pair ranks #485,758 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of promised vs prompted
Shared letters: demopr. Private to "promised": is. Private to "prompted": t.
"promised" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC · "prompted" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "promised" and "prompted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "promised" or "prompted" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "promised" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prompted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #485,758 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "promised" and "prompted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "promoter vs prompted". 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 #485,758 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.