Which to use
“require” and “required” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,736
- “require” frequency rank
- #1,027
- “required” frequency rank
- 2763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | require | required |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To demand, to insist upon (having); to call for authoritatively. | simple past and past participle of require |
Where the eye mixes require and required
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: require vs required
A purely visual mix-up. require (/ɹɪˈkwaɪə/) and required (/ɹɪˈkwaɪɹd/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “require” sits inside “required”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
require is recorded at frequency rank #1,736, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkwaɪə/. required is at rank #1,027, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪˈkwaɪɹd/.
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 2763, this pair ranks #524,112 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of require vs required
Shared letters: eiqru. Private to "require": -. Private to "required": d.
"require" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "required" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "require" and "required" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "require" vs "required" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "require" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "required" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #524,112 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "require" and "required" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "requiem vs require". 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 #524,112 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.