pacevsPLCWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,773
“pace” frequency rank
#12,832
“PLC” frequency rank
16605
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pace PLC
Definition A step. Initialism of public limited company.

Where the eye mixes pace and PLC

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pace
3 ch
PLC

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pace (/peɪs/) and PLC (/ˌpiː ˌɛl ˈsiː/) 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 16605, 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/. PLC is at rank #12,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌpiː ˌɛl ˈsiː/.

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 16605, this pair ranks #456,689 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pace vs PLC

Shared letters: cp. Private to "pace": ae. Private to "PLC": l.

"pace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "PLC" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paceapce · pacce · paec · pcae · ppace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pace" and "PLC" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/peɪs/ versus /ˌpiː ˌɛl ˈsiː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pace" or "PLC"?
"pace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,773 in our English list, against #12,832 for "PLC". 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