pacesvspricesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,348
“paces” frequency rank
#1,403
“prices” frequency rank
24751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paces prices
Definition plural of pace plural of price

Where the eye mixes paces and prices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. paces runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against prices's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
paces
6 ch
prices

Look-alike desk: paces vs prices

A purely visual mix-up. paces (/ˈpeɪsɪz/) and prices (/ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) 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 24751, 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/. prices is at rank #1,403, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/.

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 24751, this pair ranks #399,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paces vs prices

Shared letters: ceps. Private to "paces": a. Private to "prices": ir.

"paces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "prices" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paces ← apces · pacces · pacess · pacse · paecs · pcaes · ppaces
  • prices ← pirces · pprices · prcies · pricces · pricess · pricse · priecs · prrices

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paces" and "prices" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɪsɪz/ versus /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "paces" or "prices" show up more?
"prices" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,403 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "paces" and "prices" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #399,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paces" and "prices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paces vs pecs". 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 #399,586 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list