Which to use
“snowed” and “sowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,853
- “snowed” frequency rank
- #47,920
- “sowed” frequency rank
- 81773
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | snowed | sowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of snow | simple past and past participle of sow |
Where the eye mixes snowed and sowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. snowed runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against sowed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between snowed and sowed
A purely visual mix-up. snowed (/snəʊd/) and sowed (/səʊd/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
snowed is recorded at frequency rank #33,853, classified as averb, pronounced /snəʊd/. sowed is at rank #47,920, tagged as averb, pronounced /səʊd/.
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 81773, this pair ranks #17,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of snowed vs sowed
Shared letters: deosw. Private to "snowed": n. Private to "sowed": -.
"snowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "sowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "snowed" for "sowed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "snowed" vs "sowed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "snowed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,023 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "snowed" and "sowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sone 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 #17,023 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.