pacevspackWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pace” and “pack” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,773
“pace” frequency rank
#2,224
“pack” frequency rank
5997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace pack
Definition A step. A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.

Where the eye mixes pace and pack

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pace
4 ch
pack

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pace (/peɪs/) and pack (/pæk/) 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 a single letter - e in “pace” becomes k in “pack”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pace is recorded at frequency rank #3,773, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪs/. pack is at rank #2,224, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pæk/.

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 5997, this pair ranks #513,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs pack

Shared letters: acp. Private to "pace": e. Private to "pack": k.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
  • packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pace" and "pack" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/peɪs/ versus /pæk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pace" or "pack"?
"pack" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,224 in our English list, against #3,773 for "pace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list