Which to use
“purported” and “purposed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,951
- “purported” frequency rank
- #47,855
- “purposed” frequency rank
- 67806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | purported | purposed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Supposed, or assumed to be. | Intentional, deliberate. |
Where the eye mixes purported and purposed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. purported runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against purposed's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: purported vs purposed
A purely visual mix-up. purported (/pəɹˈpɔɹ.tɪd/) and purposed (/ˈpəːpəst/) 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 67806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
purported is recorded at frequency rank #19,951, classified as anadj, pronounced /pəɹˈpɔɹ.tɪd/. purposed is at rank #47,855, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpəːpəst/.
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 67806, this pair ranks #61,670 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of purported vs purposed
Shared letters: deopru. Private to "purported": t. Private to "purposed": s.
"purported" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "purposed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "purported" for "purposed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "purported" vs "purposed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "purported" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purposed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,670 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "purported" and "purposed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "purport vs purported". 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 #61,670 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.