rainedvsremainedTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,430
“rained” frequency rank
#2,403
“remained” frequency rank
21833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rained remained
Definition simple past and past participle of rain simple past and past participle of remain

Where the eye mixes rained and remained

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rained
8 ch
remained

Look-alike desk: rained vs remained

A purely visual mix-up. rained (/ɹeɪnd/) and remained (/ɹɪˈmeɪnd/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rained is recorded at frequency rank #19,430, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹeɪnd/. remained is at rank #2,403, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈmeɪnd/.

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 21833, this pair ranks #421,027 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rained vs remained

Shared letters: adeinr. Private to "rained": -. Private to "remained": m.

"rained" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "remained" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rainedarined · raiend · rainde · rainedd · rainned · ranied · rianed · rrained
  • remainedermained · reamined · remaiend · remainde · remainedd · remainned · remanied · remianed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rained" for "remained" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɹeɪnd/ versus /ɹɪˈmeɪnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rained" or "remained"?
"remained" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,403 in our English list, against #19,430 for "rained". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "rained" and "remained" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rained" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "remained" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,027 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rained" and "remained" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rained vs ramped". 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 #421,027 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list