pacingvspricingConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,386
“pacing” frequency rank
#6,725
“pricing” frequency rank
25111
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pacing pricing
Definition present participle and gerund of pace present participle and gerund of price

Where the eye mixes pacing and pricing

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pacing
7 ch
pricing

Visual trap between pacing and pricing

A purely visual mix-up. pacing (/ˈpeɪsɪŋ/) and pricing (/ˈpɹaɪsɪŋ/) 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 25111, 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/. pricing is at rank #6,725, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsɪŋ/.

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 25111, this pair ranks #396,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pacing vs pricing

Shared letters: cginp. Private to "pacing": a. Private to "pricing": r.

"pacing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "pricing" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pacingapcing · paccing · pacign · pacingg · pacinng · pacnig · paicng · pcaing
  • pricingpircing · ppricing · prciing · priccing · pricign · pricingg · pricinng · pricnig

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pacing" for "pricing" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɪsɪŋ/ versus /ˈpɹaɪsɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pacing" or "pricing"?
"pricing" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,725 in our English list, against #18,386 for "pacing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pacing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pricing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,850 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pacing" and "pricing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacing vs prancing". 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 #396,850 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