palmvspasConfusable pair

Which to use

“palm” and “pas” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,649
“palm” frequency rank
#10,718
“pas” frequency rank
29367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palm pas
Definition innere Fläche der Hand, zwischen Handwurzel und Fingern; Mittelhand, Handfläche Schritt, Tritt

Where the eye mixes palm and pas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
palm
3 ch
pas

Why the eye confuses palm with pas

A purely visual mix-up. palm ([pɑːm]) and pas ([pa]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palm is recorded at frequency rank #18,649, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɑːm]. pas is at rank #10,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pa].

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 29367, this pair ranks #1,768,099 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of palm vs pas

Shared letters: ap. Private to "palm": lm. Private to "pas": s.

"palm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palmaplm · pallm · palmm · paml · plam · ppalm

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "palm" for "pas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɑːm] versus [pa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "palm" or "pas"?
"pas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,718 in our German list, against #18,649 for "palm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "palm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,768,099 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "palm" and "pas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palm vs Pau". 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 #1,768,099 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