vestedvsvettedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“vested” and “vetted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,159
“vested” frequency rank
#27,329
“vetted” frequency rank
43488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vested vetted
Definition Settled, fixed or absolute, with no contingencies. Having undergone an investigation and been approved.

Letter map: vested vs vetted

Shared letters muted; letters that set vested and vetted apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. vested and vetted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
vested
6 ch
vetted

Corpus notes: vested and vetted

vested and vetted are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - s in “vested” becomes t in “vetted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vested is recorded at frequency rank #16,159, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈvɛstɪd/. vetted is at rank #27,329, 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 43488, this pair ranks #239,543 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vested vs vetted

Shared letters: detv. Private to "vested": s. Private to "vetted": -.

"vested" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "vetted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vested ← evsted · vesetd · vessted · vestde · vestedd · vestted · vetsed · vseted
  • vetted ← evtted · veted · vetetd · vettde · vettedd · vteted · vvetted

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vested" for "vetted" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - s in “vested” becomes t in “vetted”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "vested" vs "vetted" - which ranks higher?
"vested" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,159 in our English list, against #27,329 for "vetted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "vested" vs "vetted" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vested" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vetted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #239,543 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vested" and "vetted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Vesta vs vested". 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 #239,543 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list