Which to use
“smiled” and “soiled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,857
- “smiled” frequency rank
- #30,237
- “soiled” frequency rank
- 39094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smiled | soiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of smile | simple past and past participle of soil |
Where the eye mixes smiled and soiled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between smiled and soiled
A purely visual mix-up. smiled (/smaɪld/) 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 a single letter - m in “smiled” becomes o in “soiled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smiled is recorded at frequency rank #8,857, classified as averb, pronounced /smaɪld/. 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 39094, this pair ranks #279,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of smiled vs soiled
Shared letters: deils. Private to "smiled": m. Private to "soiled": o.
"smiled" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "soiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "smiled" and "soiled" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "smiled" or "soiled"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "smiled" and "soiled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "smiled" 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 #279,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smiled" 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 #279,879 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.