Which to use
“teared” and “tended” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,956
- “teared” frequency rank
- #10,460
- “tended” frequency rank
- 58416
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teared | tended |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of tear (“produce liquid from the eyes”) | simple past and past participle of tend |
Where the eye mixes teared and tended
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between teared and tended
A purely visual mix-up. teared (/tɪə(ɹ)d/) and tended (/ˈtɛndɪd/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58416, 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/. tended is at rank #10,460, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈtɛndɪd/.
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 58416, this pair ranks #112,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teared vs tended
Shared letters: det. Private to "teared": ar. Private to "tended": n.
"teared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "tended" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "teared" and "tended" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "teared" or "tended" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "teared" and "tended" 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 "tended" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #112,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teared" and "tended" 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 #112,733 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.