Which to use
“palm” and “pay” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,649
- “palm” frequency rank
- #10,338
- “pay” frequency rank
- 28987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palm | pay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | innere Fläche der Hand, zwischen Handwurzel und Fingern; Mittelhand, Handfläche | Geld, das man für eine Arbeitsleistung (meist regelmäßig) bekommt |
Where the eye mixes palm and pay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: palm vs pay
A purely visual mix-up. palm ([pɑːm]) and pay ([peɪ]) 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 28987, 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]. pay is at rank #10,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced [peɪ].
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 28987, this pair ranks #1,775,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of palm vs pay
Shared letters: ap. Private to "palm": lm. Private to "pay": y.
"palm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- palm ← aplm · pallm · palmm · paml · plam · ppalm
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "palm" and "pay" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "palm" or "pay" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "palm" and "pay" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,775,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palm" and "pay" 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 #1,775,037 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.