Which to use
“paid” is a verb and “pair” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #792
- “paid” frequency rank
- #1,955
- “pair” frequency rank
- 2747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paid | pair |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pay | Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of. |
Where the eye mixes paid and pair
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 pair is /pɛə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “paid” becomes r in “pair”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paid is recorded at frequency rank #792, classified as averb, pronounced /peɪd/. pair is at rank #1,955, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛə/.
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 2747, this pair ranks #524,147 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paid vs pair
Shared letters: aip. Private to "paid": d. Private to "pair": r.
"paid" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC