regainedvsrepairedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,256
“regained” frequency rank
#10,119
“repaired” frequency rank
25375
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regained repaired
Definition simple past and past participle of regain simple past and past participle of repair

Where the eye mixes regained and repaired

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

8 ch
regained
8 ch
repaired

Why the eye confuses regained with repaired

A purely visual mix-up. regained (/ɹiːˈɡeɪnd/) and repaired (/ɹɪˈpɛɹd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25375, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regained is recorded at frequency rank #15,256, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹiːˈɡeɪnd/. repaired is at rank #10,119, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈpɛɹd/.

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 25375, this pair ranks #394,771 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of regained vs repaired

Shared letters: adeir. Private to "regained": gn. Private to "repaired": p.

"regained" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "repaired" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regainedergained · reagined · regaiend · regainde · regainedd · regainned · reganied · reggained
  • repairederpaired · reapired · repaierd · repairde · repairedd · repairred · reparied · repiared

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "regained" and "repaired" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɹiːˈɡeɪnd/ versus /ɹɪˈpɛɹd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "regained" or "repaired"?
"repaired" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,119 in our English list, against #15,256 for "regained". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "regained" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "repaired" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,771 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regained" and "repaired" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regained vs rejoined". 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 #394,771 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