partvspetWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#162
“part” frequency rank
#3,323
“pet” frequency rank
3485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature part pet
Definition A portion; a component. An animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.

Where the eye mixes part and pet

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

4 ch
part
3 ch
pet

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. part (/pɑːt/) and pet (/pɛt/) 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 3485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

part is recorded at frequency rank #162, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːt/. pet is at rank #3,323, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛt/.

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 3485, this pair ranks #521,970 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of part vs pet

Shared letters: pt. Private to "part": ar. Private to "pet": e.

"part" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pet" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "part" and "pet" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɑːt/ versus /pɛt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "part" or "pet"?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our English list, against #3,323 for "pet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list