Which to use
“teared” and “thawed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,956
- “teared” frequency rank
- #41,422
- “thawed” frequency rank
- 89378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teared | thawed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of tear (“produce liquid from the eyes”) | simple past and past participle of thaw |
Where the eye mixes teared and thawed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between teared and thawed
A purely visual mix-up. teared (/tɪə(ɹ)d/) and thawed (/θɔːd/) 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 89378, 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/. thawed is at rank #41,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /θɔːd/.
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 89378, this pair ranks #5,252 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teared vs thawed
Shared letters: adet. Private to "teared": r. Private to "thawed": hw.
"teared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "thawed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "teared" and "thawed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "teared" or "thawed"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "teared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thawed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,252 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teared" and "thawed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tarek vs teared". 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 #5,252 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.