Which to use
“pulsed” and “pursued” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,470
- “pulsed” frequency rank
- #8,474
- “pursued” frequency rank
- 43944
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pulsed | pursued |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pulse | simple past and past participle of pursue |
Where the eye mixes pulsed and pursued
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pulsed runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against pursued's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pulsed and pursued
A purely visual mix-up. pulsed (/pʌlst/) and pursued (/pəˈsjuːd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pulsed is recorded at frequency rank #35,470, classified as averb, pronounced /pʌlst/. pursued is at rank #8,474, tagged as averb, pronounced /pəˈsjuːd/.
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 43944, this pair ranks #235,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pulsed vs pursued
Shared letters: depsu. Private to "pulsed": l. Private to "pursued": r.
"pulsed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pursued" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pulsed" for "pursued" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pulsed" or "pursued"?
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 "pulsed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pursued" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #235,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pulsed" and "pursued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plied vs pulsed". 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 #235,156 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.