votervsvowedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: voter is a noun, vowed is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“voter” is a noun and “vowed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,016
“voter” frequency rank
#17,518
“vowed” frequency rank
23534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voter vowed
Definition Someone who votes. past participle of vow

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set voter and vowed apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
voter
5 ch
vowed

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: voter is /ˈvəʊtə(ɹ)/ while vowed is /vaʊd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voter is recorded at frequency rank #6,016, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvəʊtə(ɹ)/. vowed is at rank #17,518, tagged as averb, pronounced /vaʊd/.

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 23534, this pair ranks #408,608 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of voter vs vowed

Shared letters: eov. Private to "voter": rt. Private to "vowed": dw.

"voter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "vowed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voterovter · voetr · voterr · votre · votter · vtoer · vvoter
  • vowedovwed · voewd · vowde · vowedd · vowwed · vvowed · vwoed

Frequency comparison

voter#6,016
vowed#17,518

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "voter" and "vowed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "voter" is a noun and "vowed" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "voter" or "vowed"?
"voter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,016 in our English list, against #17,518 for "vowed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering voter vs vowed

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “voter”; for a verb, it's “vowed”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “voter” 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