Which to use
“pain” is a noun and “pay” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #996
- “pain” frequency rank
- #390
- “pay” frequency rank
- 1386
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pain | pay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt. | To give money or other compensation to in exchange for goods or services. |
Where the eye mixes pain and pay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pain is /peɪn/ while pay is /peɪ/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pain is recorded at frequency rank #996, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪn/. pay is at rank #390, tagged as averb, pronounced /peɪ/.
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 1386, this pair ranks #527,549 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pain vs pay
Shared letters: ap. Private to "pain": in. Private to "pay": y.
"pain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pain ← apin · painn · pani · pian · ppain
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pain" and "pay" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "pain" or "pay"?
What to do next
You've compared "pain" and "pay". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "pain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #527,549 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pain" and "pay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pay 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.