Which to use
“speed” is a noun and “spent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,099
- “speed” frequency rank
- #1,029
- “spent” frequency rank
- 2128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | speed | spent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion. | Consumed, used up, exhausted, depleted. |
Where the eye mixes speed and spent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: speed is /spiːd/ while spent is /spɛnt/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
speed is recorded at frequency rank #1,099, classified as anoun, pronounced /spiːd/. spent is at rank #1,029, tagged as anadj, pronounced /spɛnt/.
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 2128, this pair ranks #525,793 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of speed vs spent
Shared letters: eps. Private to "speed": d. Private to "spent": nt.
"speed" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "spent" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC