Which to use
“teared” and “teased” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,956
- “teared” frequency rank
- #19,229
- “teased” frequency rank
- 67185
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teared | teased |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of tear (“produce liquid from the eyes”) | simple past and past participle of tease |
Where the eye mixes teared and teased
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between teared and teased
A purely visual mix-up. teared (/tɪə(ɹ)d/) 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 differ by a single letter - r in “teared” becomes s in “teased”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67185, 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/. 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 67185, this pair ranks #64,516 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teared vs teased
Shared letters: adet. Private to "teared": r. Private to "teased": s.
"teared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "teased" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "teared" and "teased" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "teared" vs "teased" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "teared" and "teased" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "teared" 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 #64,516 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teared" and "teased" 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 #64,516 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.