waitedvsweightedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,642
“waited” frequency rank
#11,639
“weighted” frequency rank
16281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature waited weighted
Definition simple past and past participle of wait simple past and past participle of weight

Same sound, different letters: waited vs weighted

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. waited runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against weighted's 8 (CVVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
waited
8 ch
weighted

Homophone desk: waited vs weighted

This is the hard kind. waited and weighted are pronounced identically (/ˈweɪt.ɪd/) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

waited is recorded at frequency rank #4,642, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈweɪt.ɪd/. weighted is at rank #11,639, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈweɪ.tɪd/.

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 16281, this pair ranks #458,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of waited vs weighted

Shared letters: deitw. Private to "waited": a. Private to "weighted": gh.

"waited" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "weighted" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • waited ← awited · waietd · waitde · waitedd · waitted · watied · wiated · wwaited
  • weighted ← ewighted · wegihted · weigghted · weighetd · weighhted · weightde · weightedd · weightted

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "waited" and "weighted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (/ˈweɪt.ɪd/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "waited" vs "weighted" - which ranks higher?
"waited" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,642 in our English list, against #11,639 for "weighted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"waited" and "weighted" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "waited" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weighted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #458,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "waited" and "weighted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waited vs whined". 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 #458,768 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