Which to use
“suggest” and “suggested” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,840
- “suggest” frequency rank
- #2,133
- “suggested” frequency rank
- 3973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suggest | suggested |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To imply but stop short of explicitly stating (something). | simple past and past participle of suggest |
Where the eye mixes suggest and suggested
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses suggest with suggested
A purely visual mix-up. suggest (/səˈd͡ʒɛst/) and suggested (/səˈd͡ʒɛstɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “suggest” sits inside “suggested”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suggest is recorded at frequency rank #1,840, classified as averb, pronounced /səˈd͡ʒɛst/. suggested is at rank #2,133, tagged as averb, pronounced /səˈd͡ʒɛstɪd/.
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 3973, this pair ranks #520,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of suggest vs suggested
Shared letters: egstu. Private to "suggest": -. Private to "suggested": d.
"suggest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "suggested" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "suggest" for "suggested" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "suggest" or "suggested" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "suggest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suggested" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #520,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suggest" and "suggested" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suggested vs suggests". 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 #520,401 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.