Which to use
“seared” is an adjective and “served” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,840
- “seared” frequency rank
- #1,647
- “served” frequency rank
- 35487
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seared | served |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | blackened by heat; scorched; burned | simple past and past participle of serve |
Letter map: seared vs served
Shared letters muted; letters that set seared and served apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for seared / served
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seared is anadjective and servedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seared is recorded at frequency rank #33,840, classified as anadj. served is at rank #1,647, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɝvd/.
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 35487, this pair ranks #311,507 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seared vs served
Shared letters: ders. Private to "seared": a. Private to "served": v.
"seared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "served" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "seared" for "served" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "seared" or "served" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "seared" and "served".
- Full dictionary entry for "seared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "served" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #311,507 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seared" and "served" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs seared". 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 #311,507 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.