pacevspacketWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,773
“pace” frequency rank
#10,101
“packet” frequency rank
13874
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace packet
Definition A step. A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel

Where the eye mixes pace and packet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pace
6 ch
packet

Look-alike desk: pace vs packet

A purely visual mix-up. pace (/peɪs/) and packet (/ˈpæk.ɪt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13874, 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/. packet is at rank #10,101, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæk.ɪt/.

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 13874, this pair ranks #473,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs packet

Shared letters: acep. Private to "pace": -. Private to "packet": kt.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "packet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
  • packetapcket · paccket · pacekt · packett · packket · packte · pakcet · pcaket

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pace" for "packet" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/peɪs/ versus /ˈpæk.ɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pace" vs "packet" - which ranks higher?
"pace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,773 in our English list, against #10,101 for "packet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pace" and "packet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "packet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #473,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pace" and "packet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pace vs pecs". 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 #473,373 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list