Which to use
“palaces” and “polices” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,928
- “palaces” frequency rank
- #42,829
- “polices” frequency rank
- 62757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palaces | polices |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of palace | plural of police (“police officer”) |
Where the eye mixes palaces and polices
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. palaces and polices follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses palaces with polices
A purely visual mix-up. palaces (/ˈpæl.ɪ.sɪz/) and polices (/pəˈliːsɪz/) 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 62757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
palaces is recorded at frequency rank #19,928, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæl.ɪ.sɪz/. polices is at rank #42,829, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pəˈliːsɪz/.
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 62757, this pair ranks #86,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palaces vs polices
Shared letters: celps. Private to "palaces": a. Private to "polices": io.
"palaces" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "polices" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "palaces" and "polices" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "palaces" or "polices" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "palaces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "polices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palaces" and "polices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plies vs polices". 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 #86,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.