Which to use
“sealed” and “soiled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,917
- “sealed” frequency rank
- #30,237
- “soiled” frequency rank
- 36154
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sealed | soiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of seal | simple past and past participle of soil |
Where the eye mixes sealed and soiled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sealed with soiled
A purely visual mix-up. sealed (/siːld/) and soiled (/ˈsɔɪld/) 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 36154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sealed is recorded at frequency rank #5,917, classified as averb, pronounced /siːld/. soiled is at rank #30,237, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈsɔɪld/.
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 36154, this pair ranks #305,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sealed vs soiled
Shared letters: dels. Private to "sealed": a. Private to "soiled": io.
"sealed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "soiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sealed" and "soiled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sealed" or "soiled" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sealed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soiled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #305,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sealed" and "soiled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soiled vs stilted". 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 #305,700 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.