walkedvswarnedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,187
“walked” frequency rank
#5,380
“warned” frequency rank
7567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature walked warned
Definition simple past and past participle of walk simple past and past participle of warn

Where the eye mixes walked and warned

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
walked
6 ch
warned

Visual trap between walked and warned

A purely visual mix-up. walked (/wɔːkt/) and warned (/wɔɹnd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

walked is recorded at frequency rank #2,187, classified as averb, pronounced /wɔːkt/. warned is at rank #5,380, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔɹnd/.

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 7567, this pair ranks #506,555 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of walked vs warned

Shared letters: adew. Private to "walked": kl. Private to "warned": nr.

"walked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "warned" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walkedawlked · wakled · walekd · walkde · walkedd · walkked · wallked · wlaked
  • warnedawrned · wanred · warend · warnde · warnedd · warnned · warrned · wraned

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "walked" and "warned" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wɔːkt/ versus /wɔɹnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "walked" vs "warned" - which ranks higher?
"walked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,187 in our English list, against #5,380 for "warned". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "walked" and "warned" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "walked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "warned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #506,555 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "walked" and "warned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "warned 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 #506,555 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