pacevspieceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,773
“pace” frequency rank
#975
“piece” frequency rank
4748
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace piece
Definition A step. A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.

Where the eye mixes pace and piece

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

4 ch
pace
5 ch
piece

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pace (/peɪs/) and piece (/piːs/) 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 4748, 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/. piece is at rank #975, tagged as anoun, pronounced /piːs/.

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 4748, this pair ranks #517,818 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs piece

Shared letters: cep. Private to "pace": a. Private to "piece": i.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace
  • pieceipece · peice · picee · piecce · pieec · ppiece

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pace" and "piece" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/peɪs/ versus /piːs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pace" or "piece"?
"piece" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #975 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