Which to use
“widow” is a noun and “widowed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,317
- “widow” frequency rank
- #24,057
- “widowed” frequency rank
- 30374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | widow | widowed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person whose spouse is absent: | Whose spouse has died or is gone missing; who has become a widow or widower. |
Letter map: widow vs widowed
Shared letters muted; letters that set widow and widowed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Grammar separator: widow vs widowed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: widow is anoun and widowedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “widow” sits inside “widowed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
widow is recorded at frequency rank #6,317, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪd.əʊ/. widowed is at rank #24,057, 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 30374, this pair ranks #355,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of widow vs widowed
Shared letters: diow. Private to "widow": -. Private to "widowed": e.
"widow" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "widowed" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "widow" and "widowed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "widow" or "widowed"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "widow" and "widowed".
- Full dictionary entry for "widow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "widowed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #355,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "widow" and "widowed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "widowed vs widower". 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 #355,062 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.