Which to use
“reached” is a verb and “reaches” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,495
- “reached” frequency rank
- #5,537
- “reaches” frequency rank
- 7032
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reached | reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of reach | plural of reach |
Where the eye mixes reached and reaches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. reached and reaches follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between reached and reaches
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reached is /ɹiːt͡ʃt/ while reaches is /ˈɹiːt͡ʃɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “reached” becomes s in “reaches”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reached is recorded at frequency rank #1,495, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹiːt͡ʃt/. reaches is at rank #5,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiːt͡ʃɪz/.
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 7032, this pair ranks #508,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of reached vs reaches
Shared letters: acehr. Private to "reached": d. Private to "reaches": s.
"reached" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "reaches" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "reached" and "reaches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "reached" or "reaches"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "reached" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reaches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #508,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "reached" and "reaches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reached vs readied". 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 #508,867 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.