partvspitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#162
“part” frequency rank
#4,548
“pit” frequency rank
4710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature part pit
Definition A portion; a component. A hole in the ground.

Where the eye mixes part and pit

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

4 ch
part
3 ch
pit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. part (/pɑːt/) and pit (/pɪt/) 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 4710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

part is recorded at frequency rank #162, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːt/. pit is at rank #4,548, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɪt/.

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 4710, this pair ranks #517,950 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of part vs pit

Shared letters: pt. Private to "part": ar. Private to "pit": i.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "part" and "pit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɑːt/ versus /pɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "part" or "pit"?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our English list, against #4,548 for "pit". 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