taskedvsteasedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tasked” and “teased” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,435
“tasked” frequency rank
#19,229
“teased” frequency rank
33664
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tasked teased
Definition simple past and past participle of task simple past and past participle of tease

Where the eye mixes tasked and teased

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tasked
6 ch
teased

Look-alike desk: tasked vs teased

A purely visual mix-up. tasked (/tæskt/) and teased (/tiːzd/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tasked is recorded at frequency rank #14,435, classified as averb, pronounced /tæskt/. teased is at rank #19,229, tagged as averb, pronounced /tiːzd/.

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 33664, this pair ranks #327,447 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tasked vs teased

Shared letters: adest. Private to "tasked": k. Private to "teased": -.

"tasked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "teased" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • taskedatsked · taksed · tasekd · taskde · taskedd · taskked · tassked · tsaked
  • teasedetased · taesed · teaesd · teasde · teasedd · teassed · tesaed · tteased

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tasked" for "teased" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/tæskt/ versus /tiːzd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tasked" vs "teased" - which ranks higher?
"tasked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,435 in our English list, against #19,229 for "teased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tasked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "teased" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #327,447 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tasked" and "teased" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teared vs teased". 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 #327,447 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list