Which to use
“wait” and “waited” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #451
- “wait” frequency rank
- #4,642
- “waited” frequency rank
- 5093
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wait | waited |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To delay movement or action until some event or time; to remain neglected or in readiness. | simple past and past participle of wait |
Where the eye mixes wait and waited
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. wait (/weɪt/) and waited (/ˈweɪt.ɪd/) 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) - “wait” sits inside “waited”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wait is recorded at frequency rank #451, classified as averb, pronounced /weɪt/. waited is at rank #4,642, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈweɪt.ɪd/.
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 5093, this pair ranks #516,619 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wait vs waited
Shared letters: aitw. Private to "wait": -. Private to "waited": de.
"wait" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "waited" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC