Which to use
“pace” is a noun and “paid” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,773
- “pace” frequency rank
- #792
- “paid” frequency rank
- 4565
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pace | paid |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A step. | simple past and past participle of pay |
Where the eye mixes pace and paid
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pace is /peɪs/ while paid is /peɪd/. 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 4565, 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/. paid is at rank #792, tagged as averb, pronounced /peɪd/.
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 4565, this pair ranks #518,498 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pace vs paid
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pace": ce. Private to "paid": di.
"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC