Which to use
“teared” is a verb and “teary” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,956
- “teared” frequency rank
- #35,553
- “teary” frequency rank
- 83509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teared | teary |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of tear (“produce liquid from the eyes”) | Of a person, having eyes filled with tears; inclined to cry. |
Where the eye mixes teared and teary
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. teared runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against teary's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses teared with teary
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: teared is /tɪə(ɹ)d/ while teary is /ˈtɪəɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teared is recorded at frequency rank #47,956, classified as averb, pronounced /tɪə(ɹ)d/. teary is at rank #35,553, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɪəɹi/.
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 83509, this pair ranks #13,680 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teared vs teary
Shared letters: aert. Private to "teared": d. Private to "teary": y.
"teared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "teary" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "teared" and "teary" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "teared" or "teary" show up more?
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 "teared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "teary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #13,680 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teared" and "teary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teared vs thawed". 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 #13,680 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.