tried
/tɹaɪd/
"tried" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tried” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #724 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #724
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tested, hence, proven to be firm or reliable.
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 | tried |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /tɹaɪd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #724 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tried” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tried is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɹaɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #724 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for tried, with forms such as "rtied", "treid", and "tride". 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, "true", "trip", "trio", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tried, tryed, equivalent to try + -ed. The correct English form is tried, spelled T-R-I-E-D.
Definition
- 1Tested, hence, proven to be firm or reliable.
- 2Put on trial, taken before a lawcourt.
Etymology
From Middle English tried, tryed, equivalent to try + -ed.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: rtied,treid,tride,triedd,trried,ttried
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tried - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “tried”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-R-I-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɹaɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “true” - see the side-by-side comparison. tried vs true
- 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.