Which to use
“sneaked” is a verb and “sneaky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,521
- “sneaked” frequency rank
- #14,634
- “sneaky” frequency rank
- 50155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sneaked | sneaky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of sneak | Elusive; difficult to capture or observe due to constantly outwitting the adversaries. |
Letter map: sneaked vs sneaky
Shared letters muted; letters that set sneaked and sneaky apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. sneaked runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against sneaky's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for sneaked / sneaky
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sneaked is averb and sneakyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sneaked is recorded at frequency rank #35,521, classified as averb. sneaky is at rank #14,634, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsniːki/.
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 50155, this pair ranks #176,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sneaked vs sneaky
Shared letters: aekns. Private to "sneaked": d. Private to "sneaky": y.
"sneaked" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "sneaky" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sneaked" and "sneaky" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sneaked" or "sneaky"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sneaked" and "sneaky".
- Full dictionary entry for "sneaked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sneaky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sneaked" and "sneaky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seared vs sneaked". 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 #176,853 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.