edgevspaidWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: edge is a noun, paid is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“edge” is a noun and “paid” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,053
“edge” frequency rank
#44,122
“paid” frequency rank
56175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature edge paid
Definition Schneide Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs pay

Letter map: edge vs paid

Shared letters muted; letters that set edge and paid apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. edge (VCCV) and paid (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
edge
4 ch
paid

Role in the sentence - edge and paid

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: edge is anoun and paidaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

edge is recorded at frequency rank #12,053, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. paid is at rank #44,122, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 56175, this pair ranks #950,486 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of edge vs paid

Shared letters: d. Private to "edge": eg. Private to "paid": aip.

"edge" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • edgedege · eddge · edeg · edgge · egde
  • paidapid · padi · paidd · ppaid

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "edge" and "paid" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "edge" is a noun and "paid" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "edge" vs "paid" - which ranks higher?
"edge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,053 in our German list, against #44,122 for "paid". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "edge" and "paid".

  • Full dictionary entry for "edge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #950,486 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "edge" and "paid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paid vs puzzles". 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 #950,486 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list