Which to use
“veil” is a noun and “veiled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,994
- “veil” frequency rank
- #20,810
- “veiled” frequency rank
- 32804
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veil | veiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Something hung up or spread out to hide or protect the face, or hide an object from view; usually of gauze, crepe, or similar diaphanous material. | Covered by a veil. |
Letter map: veil vs veiled
Shared letters muted; letters that set veil and veiled apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. veil runs 4 letters (CVVC) against veiled's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: veil vs veiled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: veil is anoun and veiledanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “veil” sits inside “veiled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veil is recorded at frequency rank #11,994, classified as anoun, pronounced /veɪl/. veiled is at rank #20,810, 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 32804, this pair ranks #334,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of veil vs veiled
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "veil": -. Private to "veiled": d.
"veil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "veiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "veil" for "veiled" ever safe?
Which is more common, "veil" or "veiled"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "veil" and "veiled".
- Full dictionary entry for "veil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "veiled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #334,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veil" and "veiled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veiled vs voided". 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 #334,787 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.