Which to use
“swelled” is a verb and “swollen” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,669
- “swelled” frequency rank
- #13,622
- “swollen” frequency rank
- 41291
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | swelled | swollen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of swell | Protuberant or abnormally distended (as by injury or disease). |
Where the eye mixes swelled and swollen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. swelled and swollen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between swelled and swollen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: swelled is /ˈswɛld/ while swollen is /ˈswəʊ.lən/. 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 41291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
swelled is recorded at frequency rank #27,669, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈswɛld/. swollen is at rank #13,622, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈswəʊ.lən/.
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 41291, this pair ranks #259,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of swelled vs swollen
Shared letters: elsw. Private to "swelled": d. Private to "swollen": no.
"swelled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "swollen" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "swelled" and "swollen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "swelled" or "swollen"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "swelled" and "swollen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "swelled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "swollen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "swelled" and "swollen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sullen vs swollen". 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 #259,812 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.