Which to use
“weaken” is a verb and “weakened” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,305
- “weaken” frequency rank
- #10,797
- “weakened” frequency rank
- 26102
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | weaken | weakened |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make weaker or less strong. | Reduced; made less strong. |
Where the eye mixes weaken and weakened
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. weaken runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against weakened's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: weaken vs weakened
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weaken is /ˈwikən/ while weakened is /ˈwiː.kənd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “weaken” sits inside “weakened”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
weaken is recorded at frequency rank #15,305, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwikən/. weakened is at rank #10,797, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwiː.kənd/.
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 26102, this pair ranks #389,214 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of weaken vs weakened
Shared letters: aeknw. Private to "weaken": -. Private to "weakened": d.
"weaken" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "weakened" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "weaken" for "weakened" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "weaken" or "weakened" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "weaken" and "weakened" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "weaken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "weakened" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,214 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "weaken" and "weakened" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weaken vs Whalen". 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 #389,214 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.