visitvsvisitedConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#980
“visit” frequency rank
#3,033
“visited” frequency rank
4013
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature visit visited
Definition To habitually go to (someone in distress, sickness etc.) to comfort them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.) past participle of visit

Where the eye mixes visit and visited

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. visit runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against visited's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
visit
7 ch
visited

Visual trap between visit and visited

A purely visual mix-up. visit (/ˈvɪzɪt/) and visited (/ˈvɪzɪtɪd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “visit” sits inside “visited”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

visit is recorded at frequency rank #980, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈvɪzɪt/. visited is at rank #3,033, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈvɪzɪtɪd/.

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 4013, this pair ranks #520,282 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of visit vs visited

Shared letters: istv. Private to "visit": -. Private to "visited": de.

"visit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "visited" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • visit ← ivsit · viist · visitt · vissit · visti · vsiit · vvisit
  • visited ← ivsited · viisted · visietd · visitde · visitedd · visitted · vissited · vistied

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "visit" and "visited" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈvɪzɪt/ versus /ˈvɪzɪtɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "visit" or "visited" show up more?
"visit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #980 in our English list, against #3,033 for "visited". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "visit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visited" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #520,282 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "visit" and "visited" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "visit vs Vit". 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 #520,282 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