Which to use
“touched” and “touchy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,341
- “touched” frequency rank
- #24,340
- “touchy” frequency rank
- 28681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | touched | touchy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Emotionally moved (by), made to feel emotion (by). | Extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set touched and touchy apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. touched (/tʌt͡ʃt/) and touchy (/ˈtʌt͡ʃi/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
touched is recorded at frequency rank #4,341, classified as anadj, pronounced /tʌt͡ʃt/. touchy is at rank #24,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃi/.
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 28681, this pair ranks #369,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of touched vs touchy
Shared letters: chotu. Private to "touched": de. Private to "touchy": y.
"touched" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "touchy" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "touched" and "touchy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "touched" or "touchy"?
Remembering touched vs touchy
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “touched” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable