Which to use
“underline” is a noun and “underlined” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,874
- “underline” frequency rank
- #25,629
- “underlined” frequency rank
- 55503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | underline | underlined |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A line placed underneath a piece of text in order to provide emphasis or to indicate that it should be viewed in italics or (in electronic documents) that it acts as a hyperlink. | simple past and past participle of underline |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set underline and underlined apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
underline and underlined form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “underline” sits inside “underlined” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
underline is recorded at frequency rank #29,874, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʌndɚˌlaɪn/. underlined is at rank #25,629, tagged as averb.
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 55503, this pair ranks #133,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "underline" and "underlined" be used interchangeably?
Remembering underline vs underlined
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “underline”; for a verb, it's “underlined”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “underline” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable