Which to use
“rouse” is a noun and “roused” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,559
- “rouse” frequency rank
- #46,154
- “roused” frequency rank
- 71713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rouse | roused |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An arousal. | simple past and past participle of rouse |
Where the eye mixes rouse and roused
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses rouse with roused
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rouse is /ˈɹaʊz/ while roused is /ˈɹaʊzd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “rouse” sits inside “roused”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rouse is recorded at frequency rank #25,559, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹaʊz/. roused is at rank #46,154, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɹaʊzd/.
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 71713, this pair ranks #45,716 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rouse vs roused
Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "rouse": -. Private to "roused": d.
"rouse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "roused" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rouse" and "roused" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "rouse" vs "roused" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rouse" and "roused" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rouse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "roused" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,716 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rouse" and "roused" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rouen 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 #45,716 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.