pallvspasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,691
“pall” frequency rank
#13,210
“pas” frequency rank
44901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pall pas
Definition Senses relating to cloth. The right of going foremost; precedence.

Where the eye mixes pall and pas

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

4 ch
pall
3 ch
pas

Look-alike desk: pall vs pas

A purely visual mix-up. pall (/pɔːl/) 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 44901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pall is recorded at frequency rank #31,691, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔːl/. 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 44901, this pair ranks #226,288 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pall vs pas

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

"pall" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pallapll · plal · ppall

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pall" and "pas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɔːl/ versus /pɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pall" or "pas"?
"pas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,210 in our English list, against #31,691 for "pall". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pall" 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 #226,288 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pall" and "pas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pall vs Pallas". 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 #226,288 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