Which to use
“tarnish” is a noun and “tarnished” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,107
- “tarnish” frequency rank
- #30,999
- “tarnished” frequency rank
- 66106
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tarnish | tarnished |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oxidation or discoloration, especially of a decorative metal exposed to air. | simple past and past participle of tarnish |
Where the eye mixes tarnish and tarnished
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. tarnish runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against tarnished's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: tarnish vs tarnished
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tarnish is /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/ while tarnished is /ˈtɑɹnɪʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “tarnish” sits inside “tarnished”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66106, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tarnish is recorded at frequency rank #35,107, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɑːnɪʃ/. tarnished is at rank #30,999, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈtɑɹnɪʃt/.
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 66106, this pair ranks #69,574 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tarnish vs tarnished
Shared letters: ahinrst. Private to "tarnish": -. Private to "tarnished": de.
"tarnish" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "tarnished" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tarnish" for "tarnished" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tarnish" or "tarnished"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tarnish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tarnished" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,574 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tarnish" and "tarnished" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tarnish vs Trish". 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 #69,574 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.