Which to use
“paid” is a verb and “paint” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #792
- “paid” frequency rank
- #2,903
- “paint” frequency rank
- 3695
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paid | paint |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pay | A substance that is applied as a liquid or paste, and dries into a solid coating that protects or adds colour to an object or surface to which it has been applied. |
Where the eye mixes paid and paint
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: paid is /peɪd/ while paint is /peɪnt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paid is recorded at frequency rank #792, classified as averb, pronounced /peɪd/. paint is at rank #2,903, tagged as anoun, pronounced /peɪnt/.
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 3695, this pair ranks #521,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paid vs paint
Shared letters: aip. Private to "paid": d. Private to "paint": nt.
"paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "paint" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC