Which to use
“pacing” is a verb and “pasting” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,386
- “pacing” frequency rank
- #37,147
- “pasting” frequency rank
- 55533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pacing | pasting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of pace | The act of applying paste to something, or affixing something using paste. |
Where the eye mixes pacing and pasting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pacing runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against pasting's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pacing vs pasting
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pacing is /ˈpeɪsɪŋ/ while pasting is /ˈpeɪstɪŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pacing is recorded at frequency rank #18,386, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpeɪsɪŋ/. pasting is at rank #37,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪstɪŋ/.
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 55533, this pair ranks #132,927 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pacing vs pasting
Shared letters: aginp. Private to "pacing": c. Private to "pasting": st.
"pacing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "pasting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pacing" and "pasting" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pacing" vs "pasting" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pacing" and "pasting" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pacing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pasting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,927 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pacing" and "pasting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasting vs porting". 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 #132,927 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.