pactvspecWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,740
“pact” frequency rank
#47,251
“pec” frequency rank
57991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pact pec
Definition An agreement; a compact; a covenant. The pectoralis major muscle.

Letter map: pact vs pec

Shared letters muted; letters that set pact and pec apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
pact
3 ch
pec

Spelling & dictionary notes on pact vs pec

pact and pec are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57991, 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/. pec is at rank #47,251, tagged as anoun.

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 57991, this pair ranks #115,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pact vs pec

Shared letters: cp. Private to "pact": at. Private to "pec": e.

"pact" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pec" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pactapct · pacct · pactt · patc · pcat · ppact

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pact" and "pec" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "pact" or "pec"?
"pact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,740 in our English list, against #47,251 for "pec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pact" and "pec".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pact" and "pec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pec vs PPA". 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 #115,565 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