Which to use
“paced” is a verb and “parched” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,779
- “paced” frequency rank
- #33,781
- “parched” frequency rank
- 47560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paced | parched |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pace | Dry. |
Where the eye mixes paced and parched
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. paced runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against parched's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses paced with parched
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paced is /peɪst/ while parched is /pɑɹt͡ʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paced is recorded at frequency rank #13,779, classified as averb, pronounced /peɪst/. parched is at rank #33,781, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɑɹt͡ʃt/.
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 47560, this pair ranks #201,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paced vs parched
Shared letters: acdep. Private to "paced": -. Private to "parched": hr.
"paced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "parched" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "paced" and "parched" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "paced" vs "parched" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "paced" and "parched" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "paced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "parched" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paced" and "parched" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parched vs pared". 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 #201,329 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.