Which to use
“shadow” is a noun and “shadowed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,395
- “shadow” frequency rank
- #35,510
- “shadowed” frequency rank
- 38905
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shadow | shadowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object. | Depicted with shading, as if showing areas in shadow. |
Letter map: shadow vs shadowed
Shared letters muted; letters that set shadow and shadowed apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for shadow / shadowed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shadow is anoun and shadowedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “shadow” sits inside “shadowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shadow is recorded at frequency rank #3,395, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃædəʊ/. shadowed is at rank #35,510, tagged as anadj.
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 38905, this pair ranks #281,641 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shadow vs shadowed
Shared letters: adhosw. Private to "shadow": -. Private to "shadowed": e.
"shadow" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "shadowed" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shadow" and "shadowed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "shadow" vs "shadowed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "shadow" vs "shadowed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "shadow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shadowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #281,641 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shadow" and "shadowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shadowed vs shadowy". 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 #281,641 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.