Which to use
“robbed” is a verb and “robbery” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,601
- “robbed” frequency rank
- #7,493
- “robbery” frequency rank
- 16094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | robbed | robbery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of rob | The act or practice of robbing. |
Where the eye mixes robbed and robbery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between robbed and robbery
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: robbed is /ɹɑbd/ while robbery is /ˈɹɒbəɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
robbed is recorded at frequency rank #8,601, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹɑbd/. robbery is at rank #7,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹɒbəɹi/.
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 16094, this pair ranks #459,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of robbed vs robbery
Shared letters: beor. Private to "robbed": d. Private to "robbery": y.
"robbed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "robbery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "robbed" and "robbery" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "robbed" or "robbery" 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 "robbed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "robbery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #459,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "robbed" and "robbery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robbed vs roused". 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 #459,949 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.