Which to use
“remain” is a noun and “remained” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,574
- “remain” frequency rank
- #2,403
- “remained” frequency rank
- 3977
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | remain | remained |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That which is left; relic; remainder. | simple past and past participle of remain |
Where the eye mixes remain and remained
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: remain vs remained
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: remain is /ɹɪˈmeɪn/ while remained is /ɹɪˈmeɪnd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “remain” sits inside “remained”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
remain is recorded at frequency rank #1,574, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈmeɪn/. 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 3977, this pair ranks #520,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of remain vs remained
Shared letters: aeimnr. Private to "remain": -. Private to "remained": d.
"remain" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "remained" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "remain" and "remained" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "remain" or "remained" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "remain" 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 #520,380 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "remain" and "remained" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "remain vs Riemann". 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 #520,380 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.