Which to use
“soaked” and “sowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,970
- “soaked” frequency rank
- #47,920
- “sowed” frequency rank
- 59890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soaked | sowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of soak | simple past and past participle of sow |
Where the eye mixes soaked and sowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. soaked runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against sowed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between soaked and sowed
A purely visual mix-up. soaked (/səʊkt/) 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 59890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
soaked is recorded at frequency rank #11,970, classified as averb, pronounced /səʊkt/. 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 59890, this pair ranks #103,451 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of soaked vs sowed
Shared letters: deos. Private to "soaked": ak. Private to "sowed": w.
"soaked" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "sowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "soaked" and "sowed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "soaked" vs "sowed" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "soaked" 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 #103,451 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soaked" 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 #103,451 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.