Which to use
“text” is a noun and “texted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,062
- “text” frequency rank
- #16,149
- “texted” frequency rank
- 17211
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | text | texted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences. | simple past and past participle of text |
Where the eye mixes text and texted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses text with texted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: text is /tɛkst/ while texted is /tɛkstɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “text” sits inside “texted”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
text is recorded at frequency rank #1,062, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɛkst/. texted is at rank #16,149, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɛkstɪd/.
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 17211, this pair ranks #452,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of text vs texted
Shared letters: etx. Private to "text": -. Private to "texted": d.
"text" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "texted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "text" for "texted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "text" or "texted"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "text" and "texted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "text" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "texted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #452,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "text" and "texted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teared vs texted". 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 #452,903 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.