Which to use
“stolen” and “stowed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,586
- “stolen” frequency rank
- #37,710
- “stowed” frequency rank
- 41296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stolen | stowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of steal | simple past and past participle of stow |
Where the eye mixes stolen and stowed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stolen and stowed follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between stolen and stowed
A purely visual mix-up. stolen (/ˈstəʊ.ln̩/) and stowed (/stəʊd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stolen is recorded at frequency rank #3,586, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈstəʊ.ln̩/. stowed is at rank #37,710, tagged as averb, pronounced /stəʊd/.
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 41296, this pair ranks #259,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stolen vs stowed
Shared letters: eost. Private to "stolen": ln. Private to "stowed": dw.
"stolen" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "stowed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stolen" and "stowed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "stolen" or "stowed"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "stolen" and "stowed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "stolen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stolen" and "stowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stooped vs stowed". 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 #259,745 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.