Which to use
“pare” and “parse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,620
- “pare” frequency rank
- #29,782
- “parse” frequency rank
- 67402
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pare | parse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife. | To resolve (a sentence, etc.) into its elements, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by agreement or government; to analyze and describe grammatically. |
Where the eye mixes pare and parse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pare and parse
A purely visual mix-up. pare (/pɛə/) and parse (/pɑːz/) 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 67402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pare is recorded at frequency rank #37,620, classified as averb, pronounced /pɛə/. parse is at rank #29,782, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɑːz/.
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 67402, this pair ranks #63,504 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pare vs parse
Shared letters: aepr. Private to "pare": -. Private to "parse": s.
"pare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "parse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pare" for "parse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pare" vs "parse" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pare" and "parse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "parse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,504 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pare" and "parse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pare vs Pyke". 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 #63,504 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.