skatedvsSlatesConfusable pair

Quick tell: skated is a verb, Slates is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“skated” is a verb and “Slates” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,226
“skated” frequency rank
#46,781
“Slates” frequency rank
84007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skated Slates
Definition simple past and past participle of skate A surname.

Letter map: skated vs Slates

Shared letters muted; letters that set skated and Slates apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
skated
6 ch
Slates

Part-of-speech tell for skated / Slates

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: skated is averb and Slatesaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skated is recorded at frequency rank #37,226, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈskeɪtɪd/. Slates is at rank #46,781, tagged as aname.

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 84007, this pair ranks #12,770 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of skated vs Slates

Shared letters: aest. Private to "skated": dk. Private to "Slates": l.

"skated" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Slates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skatedksated · sakted · skaetd · skatde · skatedd · skatted · skkated · sktaed
  • Slateslsates · saltes · slaets · slatess · slatse · slattes · sllates · sltaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "skated" and "Slates" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "skated" is a verb and "Slates" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "skated" or "Slates" show up more?
"skated" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,226 in our English list, against #46,781 for "Slates". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "skated" and "Slates". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "skated" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Slates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,770 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skated" and "Slates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sate vs Slates". 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 #12,770 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