Which to use
“past” and “psi” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #437
- “past” frequency rank
- #16,099
- “psi” frequency rank
- 16536
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | psi |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future. | The twenty-third letter of Classical and Modern Greek and the twenty-fifth letter of Old and Ancient Greek. |
Where the eye mixes past and psi
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. past (/pɑːst/) and psi (/psaɪ/) 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 16536, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #437, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːst/. psi is at rank #16,099, tagged as anoun, pronounced /psaɪ/.
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 16536, this pair ranks #457,137 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of past vs psi
Shared letters: ps. Private to "past": at. Private to "psi": i.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "psi" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · ppast · psat