pacts vs pasts, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#46,675
“pacts” frequency rank: #44,990
“pasts” frequency rank: 91665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pacts	pasts
Definition	plural of pact	plural of past

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pacts and pasts apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

pacts

5 ch

pasts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pacts (/pækts/) and pasts (/pɑːsts/) 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 a single letter - c in “pacts” becomes s in “pasts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pacts is recorded at frequency rank #46,675, classified as anoun, pronounced /pækts/. pasts is at rank #44,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑːsts/.

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 91665, this pair ranks #3,123 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pacts vs pasts

Shared letters: apst. Private to "pacts": c. Private to "pasts": -.

"pacts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "pasts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

pacts ← apcts · paccts · pacst · pactss · pactts · patcs · pcats · ppacts
pasts ← apsts · passts · pastss · pastts · ppasts · psats

Frequency comparison

pacts#46,675

pasts#44,990

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pacts" and "pasts" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/pækts/ versus /pɑːsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "pacts" or "pasts"?

"pasts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,990 in our English list, against #46,675 for "pacts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pacts vs pasts

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pacts” entry
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