Which to use
“slowed” and “snowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,121
- “slowed” frequency rank
- #33,853
- “snowed” frequency rank
- 44974
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | slowed | snowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of slow | simple past and past participle of snow |
Where the eye mixes slowed and snowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. slowed and snowed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: slowed vs snowed
A purely visual mix-up. slowed (/sləʊd/) and snowed (/snəʊd/) 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 a single letter - l in “slowed” becomes n in “snowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44974, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
slowed is recorded at frequency rank #11,121, classified as averb, pronounced /sləʊd/. snowed is at rank #33,853, tagged as averb, pronounced /snəʊd/.
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 44974, this pair ranks #225,613 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of slowed vs snowed
Shared letters: deosw. Private to "slowed": l. Private to "snowed": n.
"slowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "snowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "slowed" and "snowed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "slowed" vs "snowed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "slowed" and "snowed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "slowed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "snowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #225,613 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "slowed" and "snowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "snowed vs sowed". 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 #225,613 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.