realisevsrealisedConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,625
“realise” frequency rank
#6,290
“realised” frequency rank
10915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature realise realised
Definition Non-Oxford British standard spelling of realize. simple past and past participle of realise

Letter map: realise vs realised

Shared letters muted; letters that set realise and realised apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. realise runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against realised's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
realise
8 ch
realised

Corpus notes: realise and realised

realise and realised are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “realise” sits inside “realised”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

realise is recorded at frequency rank #4,625, classified as averb. realised is at rank #6,290, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɹi.ə.laɪzd/.

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 10915, this pair ranks #489,842 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of realise vs realised

Shared letters: aeilrs. Private to "realise": -. Private to "realised": d.

"realise" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "realised" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • realise ← eralise · raelise · reailse · realies · realisse · reallise · realsie · relaise
  • realised ← eralised · raelised · reailsed · realiesd · realisde · realisedd · realissed · reallised

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "realise" for "realised" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “realise” sits inside “realised”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "realise" vs "realised" - which ranks higher?
"realise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,625 in our English list, against #6,290 for "realised". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "realise" and "realised".

  • Full dictionary entry for "realise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "realised" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #489,842 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "realise" and "realised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "readied vs realised". 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 #489,842 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