pacer vs paces, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,297
“pacer” frequency rank: #23,348
“paces” frequency rank: 64645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pacer	paces
Definition	One who paces.	plural of pace

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pacer and paces apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

pacer

5 ch

paces

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

pacer and paces are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - r in “pacer” becomes s in “paces”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pacer is recorded at frequency rank #41,297, classified as anoun. paces is at rank #23,348, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪsɪz/.

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 64645, this pair ranks #76,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pacer vs paces

Shared letters: acep. Private to "pacer": r. Private to "paces": s.

"pacer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "paces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

pacer ← apcer · paccer · pacerr · pacre · paecr · pcaer · ppacer
paces ← apces · pacces · pacess · pacse · paecs · pcaes · ppaces

Frequency comparison

pacer#41,297

paces#23,348

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pacer" and "paces" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by a single letter - r in “pacer” becomes s in “paces”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "pacer" or "paces"?

"paces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,348 in our English list, against #41,297 for "pacer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pacer vs paces

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pacer” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable