Which to use
“pace” and “pat” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,773
- “pace” frequency rank
- #4,785
- “pat” frequency rank
- 8558
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pace | pat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A step. | The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep. |
Where the eye mixes pace and pat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. pace (/peɪs/) and pat (/pæt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8558, 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/. pat is at rank #4,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pæt/.
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 8558, this pair ranks #501,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pace vs pat
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pace": ce. Private to "pat": t.
"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "pat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pace ← apce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace