Which to use
“soiled” is a verb and “styled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,237
- “soiled” frequency rank
- #12,510
- “styled” frequency rank
- 42747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soiled | styled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of soil | Set in place, arranged. |
Letter map: soiled vs styled
Shared letters muted; letters that set soiled and styled apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - soiled and styled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: soiled is averb and styledanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42747, 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/. styled is at rank #12,510, 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 42747, this pair ranks #246,417 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of soiled vs styled
Shared letters: dels. Private to "soiled": io. Private to "styled": ty.
"soiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "styled" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "soiled" for "styled" ever safe?
Frequency check: "soiled" vs "styled" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "soiled" vs "styled" 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 "styled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,417 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soiled" and "styled" 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 #246,417 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.