signedvssignerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: signed is a adjective, signer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“signed” is an adjective and “signer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,503
“signed” frequency rank
#43,369
“signer” frequency rank
44872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature signed signer
Definition Having a signature; endorsed. One who signs (in any sense of that verb).

Letter map: signed vs signer

Shared letters muted; letters that set signed and signer apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
signed
6 ch
signer

Grammar separator: signed vs signer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: signed is anadjective and signeranoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - d in “signed” becomes r in “signer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

signed is recorded at frequency rank #1,503, classified as anadj, pronounced /saɪnd/. signer is at rank #43,369, tagged as anoun.

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 44872, this pair ranks #226,556 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of signed vs signer

Shared letters: egins. Private to "signed": d. Private to "signer": r.

"signed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "signer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • signedisgned · sgined · sigend · siggned · signde · signedd · signned · singed
  • signerisgner · sginer · sigenr · siggner · signerr · signner · signre · ssigner

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "signed" for "signer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "signed" is an adjective and "signer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "signed" vs "signer" - which ranks higher?
"signed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,503 in our English list, against #43,369 for "signer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "signed" and "signer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "signed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "signer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #226,556 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "signed" and "signer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "signer vs sinker". 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 #226,556 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list