partsvspartyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#911
“parts” frequency rank
#308
“party” frequency rank
1219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parts party
Definition plural of part A person or group of people constituting one side in a legal proceeding, such as in a legal action or a contract.

Where the eye mixes parts and party

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

5 ch
parts
5 ch
party

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. parts (/pɑːts/) and party (/ˈpɑː.ti/) 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 a single letter - s in “parts” becomes y in “party”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parts is recorded at frequency rank #911, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːts/. party is at rank #308, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑː.ti/.

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 1219, this pair ranks #527,857 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parts vs party

Shared letters: aprt. Private to "parts": s. Private to "party": y.

"parts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "party" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partsaprts · parrts · parst · partss · partts · patrs · pparts · prats
  • partyaprty · parrty · partty · partyy · paryt · patry · pparty · praty

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parts" and "party" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɑːts/ versus /ˈpɑː.ti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parts" or "party"?
"party" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #308 in our English list, against #911 for "parts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list