Which to use
“paced” and “pared” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,779
- “paced” frequency rank
- #39,472
- “pared” frequency rank
- 53251
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paced | pared |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pace | simple past and past participle of pare |
Where the eye mixes paced and pared
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. paced and pared follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses paced with pared
A purely visual mix-up. paced (/peɪst/) and pared (/pɛəd/) 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 a single letter - c in “paced” becomes r in “pared”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53251, 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/. pared is at rank #39,472, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɛəd/.
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 53251, this pair ranks #150,515 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paced vs pared
Shared letters: adep. Private to "paced": c. Private to "pared": r.
"paced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pared" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paced" and "pared" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "paced" or "pared"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "paced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,515 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paced" and "pared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pared vs plied". 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 #150,515 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.