Which to use
“disgrace” is a noun and “displace” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,681
- “disgrace” frequency rank
- #30,005
- “displace” frequency rank
- 40686
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disgrace | displace |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The condition of being out of favor; loss of favor, regard, or respect. | To put out of place; to disarrange. |
Where the eye mixes disgrace and displace
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. disgrace and displace follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses disgrace with displace
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: disgrace is /dɪsˈɡɹeɪs/ while displace is /dɪsˈpleɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disgrace is recorded at frequency rank #10,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪsˈɡɹeɪs/. displace is at rank #30,005, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɪsˈpleɪs/.
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 40686, this pair ranks #265,265 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of disgrace vs displace
Shared letters: acdeis. Private to "disgrace": gr. Private to "displace": lp.
"disgrace" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV · "displace" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "disgrace" for "displace" ever safe?
Which is more common, "disgrace" or "displace"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "disgrace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "displace" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,265 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disgrace" and "displace" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "displace vs displays". 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 #265,265 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.