parityvspartWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,989
“parity” frequency rank
#162
“part” frequency rank
17151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parity part
Definition Equality; comparability of strength or intensity. A portion; a component.

Where the eye mixes parity and part

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
parity
4 ch
part

Visual trap between parity and part

A purely visual mix-up. parity (/ˈpæɹɪti/) and part (/pɑːt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parity is recorded at frequency rank #16,989, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæɹɪti/. part is at rank #162, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑːt/.

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 17151, this pair ranks #453,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parity vs part

Shared letters: aprt. Private to "parity": iy. Private to "part": -.

"parity" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "part" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parityaprity · pairty · paritty · parityy · pariyt · parrity · partiy · pparity
  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parity" and "part" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpæɹɪti/ versus /pɑːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parity" vs "part" - which ranks higher?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our English list, against #16,989 for "parity". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parity" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "part" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #453,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parity" and "part" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parity vs pyrite". 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 #453,298 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