withdrawal vs withdrawn, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“withdrawal” is a noun and “withdrawn” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,645
“withdrawal” frequency rank: #8,380
“withdrawn” frequency rank: 15025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	withdrawal	withdrawn
Definition	Receiving from someone's care what one has earlier entrusted to them. Usually refers to money.	Removed from circulation.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set withdrawal and withdrawn apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch

withdrawal

9 ch

withdrawn

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: withdrawal is /wɪðˈdɹɔː(ə)l/ while withdrawn is /wɪðˈdɹɔːn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

withdrawal is recorded at frequency rank #6,645, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɪðˈdɹɔː(ə)l/. withdrawn is at rank #8,380, tagged as anadj, pronounced /wɪðˈdɹɔːn/.

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 15025, this pair ranks #466,506 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of withdrawal vs withdrawn

Shared letters: adhirtw. Private to "withdrawal": l. Private to "withdrawn": n.

"withdrawal" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCCVCVC · "withdrawn" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

withdrawal ← iwthdrawal · wihtdrawal · witdhrawal · withdarwal · withddrawal · withdraawl · withdrawall · withdrawla
withdrawn ← iwthdrawn · wihtdrawn · witdhrawn · withdarwn · withddrawn · withdranw · withdrawnn · withdrawwn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "withdrawal" and "withdrawn" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "withdrawal" is a noun and "withdrawn" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "withdrawal" or "withdrawn"?

"withdrawal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,645 in our English list, against #8,380 for "withdrawn". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.