Which to use
“sided” and “soiled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,848
- “sided” frequency rank
- #30,237
- “soiled” frequency rank
- 38085
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sided | soiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of side | simple past and past participle of soil |
Where the eye mixes sided and soiled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sided with soiled
A purely visual mix-up. sided (/ˈsaɪdɪd/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sided is recorded at frequency rank #7,848, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsaɪdɪd/. 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 38085, this pair ranks #288,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sided vs soiled
Shared letters: deis. Private to "sided": -. Private to "soiled": lo.
"sided" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "soiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sided" and "soiled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sided" 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 "sided" 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 #288,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sided" 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 #288,953 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.