Which to use
“past” and “paw” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #437
- “past” frequency rank
- #15,469
- “paw” frequency rank
- 15906
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | paw |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. | The soft foot of a mammal or other animal, generally a quadruped, that has claws or nails; comparable to a human hand or foot. |
Where the eye mixes past and paw
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. past (/pɑːst/) and paw (/pɔː/) 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 15906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #437, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/. paw is at rank #15,469, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔː/.
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 15906, this pair ranks #461,081 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of past vs paw
Shared letters: ap. Private to "past": st. Private to "paw": w.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "paw" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · ppast · psat