pairvsparkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,955
“pair” frequency rank
#717
“park” frequency rank
2672
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pair park
Definition Two alike or identical things taken together; often followed by of. An area of land set aside for environment preservation or recreation.

Where the eye mixes pair and park

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pair
4 ch
park

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pair (/pɛə/) and park (/pɑɹk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pair is recorded at frequency rank #1,955, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɛə/. park is at rank #717, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑɹk/.

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 2672, this pair ranks #524,356 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pair vs park

Shared letters: apr. Private to "pair": i. Private to "park": k.

"pair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "park" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pairapir · pairr · piar · ppair
  • parkaprk · pakr · parkk · parrk · ppark · prak

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pair" and "park" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɛə/ versus /pɑɹk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pair" or "park"?
"park" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #717 in our English list, against #1,955 for "pair". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list