Which to use
“stump” is a noun and “stumped” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,143
- “stump” frequency rank
- #30,990
- “stumped” frequency rank
- 47133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stump | stumped |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The remains of something that has been cut off; especially the remains of a tree, the remains of a limb. | Perplexed, confused. |
Letter map: stump vs stumped
Shared letters muted; letters that set stump and stumped apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. stump runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against stumped's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for stump / stumped
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stump is anoun and stumpedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “stump” sits inside “stumped”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stump is recorded at frequency rank #16,143, classified as anoun, pronounced /stʌmp/. stumped is at rank #30,990, 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 47133, this pair ranks #205,271 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stump vs stumped
Shared letters: mpstu. Private to "stump": -. Private to "stumped": de.
"stump" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "stumped" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stump" for "stumped" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stump" vs "stumped" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "stump" vs "stumped" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "stump" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stumped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #205,271 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stump" and "stumped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stooped vs stumped". 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 #205,271 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.