undressvsundressedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: undress is a verb, undressed is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“undress” is a verb and “undressed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,333
“undress” frequency rank
#30,634
“undressed” frequency rank
64967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature undress undressed
Definition To remove one's clothing. Having partially or completely removed one's clothes.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set undress and undressed apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
undress
9 ch
undressed

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: undress is averb and undressedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “undress” sits inside “undressed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

undress is recorded at frequency rank #34,333, classified as averb, pronounced /ʌnˈdɹɛs/. undressed is at rank #30,634, tagged as anadj.

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 64967, this pair ranks #75,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of undress vs undressed

Shared letters: denrsu. Private to "undress": -. Private to "undressed": -.

"undress" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC  ·  "undressed" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • undressnudress · udnress · unddress · underss · undres · undrress · undrses · unndress
  • undressednudressed · udnressed · unddressed · underssed · undresed · undresesd · undressde · undressedd

Frequency comparison

undress#34,333
undressed#30,634

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "undress" and "undressed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "undress" is a verb and "undressed" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "undress" or "undressed"?
"undressed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,634 in our English list, against #34,333 for "undress". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering undress vs undressed

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “undress”; for an adjective, it's “undressed”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “undress” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list