pactsvsplacesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#46,675
“pacts” frequency rank
#998
“places” frequency rank
47673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pacts places
Definition plural of pact plural of place

Where the eye mixes pacts and places

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pacts runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against places's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pacts
6 ch
places

Look-alike desk: pacts vs places

A purely visual mix-up. pacts (/pækts/) and places (/ˈpleɪsɪz/) 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 47673, 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/. places is at rank #998, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpleɪsɪz/.

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 47673, this pair ranks #200,238 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pacts vs places

Shared letters: acps. Private to "pacts": t. Private to "places": el.

"pacts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "places" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pacts ← apcts · paccts · pacst · pactss · pactts · patcs · pcats · ppacts
  • places ← lpaces · palces · placces · placess · placse · plaecs · plcaes · pllaces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pacts" and "places" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pækts/ versus /ˈpleɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pacts" vs "places" - which ranks higher?
"places" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #998 in our English list, against #46,675 for "pacts". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pacts" and "places" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pacts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "places" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,238 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pacts" and "places" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacts 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 #200,238 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