paces vs pieces, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#23,348
“paces” frequency rank: #1,957
“pieces” frequency rank: 25305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	paces	pieces
Definition	plural of pace	plural of piece

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

paces

6 ch

pieces

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. paces (/ˈpeɪsɪz/) and pieces (/ˈpiːsɪz/) 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 25305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paces is recorded at frequency rank #23,348, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪsɪz/. pieces is at rank #1,957, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiːsɪz/.

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 25305, this pair ranks #395,320 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paces vs pieces

Shared letters: ceps. Private to "paces": a. Private to "pieces": i.

"paces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pieces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

paces ← apces · pacces · pacess · pacse · paecs · pcaes · ppaces
pieces ← ipeces · peices · picees · piecces · piecess · piecse · pieecs · ppieces

Frequency comparison

paces#23,348

pieces#1,957

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɪsɪz/ versus /ˈpiːsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

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

"pieces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,957 in our English list, against #23,348 for "paces". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering paces vs pieces

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 “paces” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable