palacevsplacesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,320
“palace” frequency rank
#998
“places” frequency rank
4318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature palace places
Definition Official residence of a head of state or other dignitary, especially in a monarchical or imperial governmental system. plural of place

Where the eye mixes palace and places

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
palace
6 ch
places

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. palace (/ˈpæl.ɪs/) and places (/ˈpleɪsɪz/) 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 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

palace is recorded at frequency rank #3,320, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæl.ɪs/. places is at rank #998, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpleɪsɪz/.

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 4318, this pair ranks #519,309 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of palace vs places

Shared letters: acelp. Private to "palace": -. Private to "places": s.

"palace" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "places" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • palaceaplace · paalce · palacce · palaec · palcae · pallace · plaace · ppalace
  • placeslpaces · palces · placces · placess · placse · plaecs · plcaes · pllaces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "palace" and "places" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpæl.ɪs/ versus /ˈpleɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "palace" or "places"?
"places" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #998 in our English list, against #3,320 for "palace". 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