Which to use
“palm” and “past” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,876
- “palm” frequency rank
- #437
- “past” frequency rank
- 5313
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palm | past |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of various evergreen trees from the family Palmae or Arecaceae, which are mainly found in the tropics. | The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. |
Where the eye mixes palm and past
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. palm (/pɑːm/) and past (/pɑːst/) 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 5313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
palm is recorded at frequency rank #4,876, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːm/. past is at rank #437, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/.
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 5313, this pair ranks #515,818 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of palm vs past
Shared letters: ap. Private to "palm": lm. Private to "past": st.
"palm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC