Which to use
“palpable” and “passable” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,761
- “palpable” frequency rank
- #37,145
- “passable” frequency rank
- 59906
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palpable | passable |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Capable of being touched, felt or handled; touchable, tangible. | That may be passed or traversed. |
Where the eye mixes palpable and passable
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses palpable with passable
A purely visual mix-up. palpable (/ˈpælpəbəl/) and passable (/ˈpæsəbəl/) 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 59906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
palpable is recorded at frequency rank #22,761, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpælpəbəl/. passable is at rank #37,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpæsəbəl/.
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 59906, this pair ranks #103,358 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of palpable vs passable
Shared letters: abelp. Private to "palpable": -. Private to "passable": s.
"palpable" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "passable" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "palpable" and "passable" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "palpable" or "passable" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "palpable" and "passable" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "palpable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #103,358 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palpable" and "passable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palpable vs pliable". 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 #103,358 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.