Which to use
“thaw” and “thawed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,130
- “thaw” frequency rank
- #41,422
- “thawed” frequency rank
- 64552
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thaw | thawed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To gradually melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften from frozen. | simple past and past participle of thaw |
Where the eye mixes thaw and thawed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thaw with thawed
A purely visual mix-up. thaw (/θɔː/) 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 differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “thaw” sits inside “thawed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thaw is recorded at frequency rank #23,130, classified as averb, pronounced /θɔː/. 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 64552, this pair ranks #77,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thaw vs thawed
Shared letters: ahtw. Private to "thaw": -. Private to "thawed": de.
"thaw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thawed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thaw" and "thawed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "thaw" vs "thawed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "thaw" and "thawed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "thaw" 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 #77,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thaw" and "thawed" 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 #77,138 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.