Which to use
“sounded” is a verb and “stunned” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,918
- “sounded” frequency rank
- #11,616
- “stunned” frequency rank
- 17534
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sounded | stunned |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of sound | Unable to act or respond; dazed; shocked. |
Where the eye mixes sounded and stunned
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sounded (CVVCCVC) and stunned (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: sounded vs stunned
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sounded is /ˈsaʊndɪd/ while stunned is /stʌnd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sounded is recorded at frequency rank #5,918, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsaʊndɪd/. stunned is at rank #11,616, tagged as anadj, pronounced /stʌnd/.
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 17534, this pair ranks #450,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sounded vs stunned
Shared letters: densu. Private to "sounded": o. Private to "stunned": t.
"sounded" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "stunned" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sounded" and "stunned" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sounded" or "stunned"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sounded" and "stunned" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sounded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stunned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sounded" and "stunned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stunned vs stunner". 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 #450,819 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.