packvspartWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,224
“pack” frequency rank
#162
“part” frequency rank
2386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pack part
Definition A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale. A portion; a component.

Where the eye mixes pack and part

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pack
4 ch
part

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pack (/pæk/) and part (/pɑːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pack is recorded at frequency rank #2,224, classified as anoun, pronounced /pæk/. part is at rank #162, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑːt/.

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 2386, this pair ranks #525,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pack vs part

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pack": ck. Private to "part": rt.

"pack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "part" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack
  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pack" and "part" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pæk/ versus /pɑːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pack" or "part"?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our English list, against #2,224 for "pack". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list