payvsPURConfusable pair

Quick tell: pay is a noun, PUR is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pay” is a noun and “PUR” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,338
“pay” frequency rank
#7,381
“PUR” frequency rank
17719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pay PUR
Definition Geld, das man für eine Arbeitsleistung (meist regelmäßig) bekommt permanent uppehållsrätt; permanentes Aufenthaltsrecht

Letter map: pay vs PUR

Shared letters muted; letters that set pay and PUR apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
pay
3 ch
PUR

Part-of-speech tell for pay / PUR

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pay is anoun and PURanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pay is recorded at frequency rank #10,338, classified as anoun, pronounced [peɪ]. PUR is at rank #7,381, tagged as anabbrev.

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 17719, this pair ranks #1,924,907 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pay vs PUR

Shared letters: p. Private to "pay": ay. Private to "PUR": ru.

"pay" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "PUR" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pay" for "PUR" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pay" is a noun and "PUR" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "pay" or "PUR" show up more?
"PUR" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,381 in our German list, against #10,338 for "pay". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "pay" and "PUR". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PUR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,924,907 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pay" and "PUR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pay vs PMS". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,924,907 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