Which to use
“snowed” and “stowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,853
- “snowed” frequency rank
- #37,710
- “stowed” frequency rank
- 71563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | snowed | stowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of snow | simple past and past participle of stow |
Where the eye mixes snowed and stowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. snowed and stowed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: snowed vs stowed
A purely visual mix-up. snowed (/snəʊd/) and stowed (/stəʊd/) 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 - n in “snowed” becomes t in “stowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71563, 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/. stowed is at rank #37,710, tagged as averb, pronounced /stəʊd/.
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 71563, this pair ranks #46,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of snowed vs stowed
Shared letters: deosw. Private to "snowed": n. Private to "stowed": t.
"snowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "stowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "snowed" and "stowed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "snowed" vs "stowed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "snowed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "snowed" and "stowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stooped vs stowed". 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 #46,239 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.