palavspasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,800
“pala” frequency rank
#13,210
“pas” frequency rank
55010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pala pas
Definition A part of an insect's leg that is spade-shaped and can be used as a scoop for feeding. The right of going foremost; precedence.

Where the eye mixes pala and pas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pala
3 ch
pas

Why the eye confuses pala with pas

A purely visual mix-up. pala (/ˈpeɪlə/) and pas (/pɑː/) 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 55010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pala is recorded at frequency rank #41,800, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪlə/. pas is at rank #13,210, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑː/.

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 55010, this pair ranks #136,805 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pala vs pas

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pala": l. Private to "pas": s.

"pala" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palaapla · paal · palla · plaa · ppala

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pala" and "pas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɪlə/ versus /pɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "pala" or "pas" show up more?
"pas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,210 in our English list, against #41,800 for "pala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,805 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pala" and "pas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pala 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

Confusion rank #136,805 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