Which to use
“piece” is a noun and “pierce” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,871
- “piece” frequency rank
- #26,571
- “pierce” frequency rank
- 51442
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piece | pierce |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Teil, Stück | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs piercen |
Letter map: piece vs pierce
Shared letters muted; letters that set piece and pierce apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - piece and pierce
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: piece is anoun and pierceaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piece is recorded at frequency rank #24,871, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. pierce is at rank #26,571, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpiːɐ̯sə].
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 51442, this pair ranks #1,135,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of piece vs pierce
Shared letters: ceip. Private to "piece": -. Private to "pierce": r.
"piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pierce" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "piece" and "pierce" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "piece" or "pierce"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "piece" and "pierce".
- Full dictionary entry for "piece" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pierce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,135,397 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piece" and "pierce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piece 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 #1,135,397 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.