wedgevswedgedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wedge is a noun, wedged is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wedge” is a noun and “wedged” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,715
“wedge” frequency rank
#33,080
“wedged” frequency rank
45795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wedge wedged
Definition One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering. cuneiform or wedge-shaped

Letter map: wedge vs wedged

Shared letters muted; letters that set wedge and wedged apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. wedge runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against wedged's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
wedge
6 ch
wedged

Grammar separator: wedge vs wedged

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wedge is anoun and wedgedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “wedge” sits inside “wedged”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wedge is recorded at frequency rank #12,715, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɛd͡ʒ/. wedged is at rank #33,080, tagged as anadj.

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 45795, this pair ranks #217,847 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wedge vs wedged

Shared letters: degw. Private to "wedge": -. Private to "wedged": -.

"wedge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wedged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wedge ← ewdge · wdege · weddge · wedeg · wedgge · wegde · wwedge
  • wedged ← ewdged · wdeged · weddged · wedegd · wedgde · wedgedd · wedgged · wegded

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wedge" and "wedged" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wedge" is a noun and "wedged" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "wedge" or "wedged" show up more?
"wedge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,715 in our English list, against #33,080 for "wedged". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "wedge" vs "wedged" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wedge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wedged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,847 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wedge" and "wedged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wedded vs wedged". 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 #217,847 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