pastvspshWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: past is a noun, psh is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“past” is a noun and “psh” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#437
“past” frequency rank
#47,850
“psh” frequency rank
48287
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature past psh
Definition The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. Synonym of pshaw.

Letter map: past vs psh

Shared letters muted; letters that set past and psh apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
past
3 ch
psh

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: past is anoun and pshanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

past is recorded at frequency rank #437, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/. psh is at rank #47,850, tagged as anintj.

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 48287, this pair ranks #194,543 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of past vs psh

Shared letters: ps. Private to "past": at. Private to "psh": h.

"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "psh" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pastapst · passt · pastt · ppast · psat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "past" and "psh" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "past" is a noun and "psh" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "past" or "psh"?
"past" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #437 in our English list, against #47,850 for "psh". 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