Which to use
“soiled” is a verb and “spiked” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,237
- “soiled” frequency rank
- #21,666
- “spiked” frequency rank
- 51903
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soiled | spiked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of soil | Containing alcohol or drugs, often without the knowledge of those who partake. |
Letter map: soiled vs spiked
Shared letters muted; letters that set soiled and spiked apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. soiled (CVVCVC) and spiked (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for soiled / spiked
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: soiled is averb and spikedanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
soiled is recorded at frequency rank #30,237, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsɔɪld/. spiked is at rank #21,666, tagged as anadj.
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 51903, this pair ranks #161,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of soiled vs spiked
Shared letters: deis. Private to "soiled": lo. Private to "spiked": kp.
"soiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "spiked" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "soiled" for "spiked" ever safe?
Frequency check: "soiled" vs "spiked" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "soiled" vs "spiked" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "soiled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spiked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soiled" and "spiked" 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 #161,512 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.