kept
/ˈkɛpt/
"kept" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kept” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,086 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,086
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past and past participle of keep
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kept |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈkɛpt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,086 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “kept” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for kept is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɛpt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,086 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past and past participle of keep".
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for kept, with forms such as "ekpt", "keppt", and "keptt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "KT", "KP", "key", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English kept, kepte, from Old English cēpte; see -t. The correct English form is kept, spelled K-E-P-T.
Definition
- 1simple past and past participle of keep
Etymology
From Middle English kept, kepte, from Old English cēpte; see -t.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ekpt,keppt,keptt,ketp,kkept,kpet
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of kept - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “kept”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is K-E-P-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkɛpt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “KT” - see the side-by-side comparison. kept vs KT
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.