Which to use
“passes” and “praises” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,321
- “passes” frequency rank
- #14,813
- “praises” frequency rank
- 18134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passes | praises |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of pass | plural of praise |
Where the eye mixes passes and praises
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. passes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against praises's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses passes with praises
A purely visual mix-up. passes (/ˈpɑːsɪz/) and praises (/ˈpɹeɪzɪz/) 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 18134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passes is recorded at frequency rank #3,321, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑːsɪz/. praises is at rank #14,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹeɪzɪz/.
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 18134, this pair ranks #446,888 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passes vs praises
Shared letters: aeps. Private to "passes": -. Private to "praises": ir.
"passes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "praises" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "passes" for "praises" ever safe?
Frequency check: "passes" vs "praises" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "passes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "praises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #446,888 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passes" and "praises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Prairies vs praises". 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 #446,888 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.