Which to use
“pact” and “pad” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,740
- “pact” frequency rank
- #7,039
- “pad” frequency rank
- 17779
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pact | pad |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An agreement; a compact; a covenant. | A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on. |
Where the eye mixes pact and pad
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pact with pad
A purely visual mix-up. pact (/pækt/) and pad (/pæd/) 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 17779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pact is recorded at frequency rank #10,740, classified as anoun, pronounced /pækt/. pad is at rank #7,039, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pæd/.
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 17779, this pair ranks #449,191 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pact vs pad
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pact": ct. Private to "pad": d.
"pact" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pad" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pact ← apct · pacct · pactt · patc · pcat · ppact
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pact" and "pad" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pact" or "pad"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pad" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #449,191 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pact" and "pad" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pact 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 #449,191 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.