Which to use
“paste” and “pat” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,183
- “paste” frequency rank
- #4,785
- “pat” frequency rank
- 12968
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paste | pat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A soft moist mixture, in particular: | The sound of a light slap or tap with a soft flat object, especially of a footstep. |
Where the eye mixes paste and pat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: paste vs pat
A purely visual mix-up. paste (/peɪst/) and pat (/pæt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paste is recorded at frequency rank #8,183, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪst/. pat is at rank #4,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pæt/.
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 12968, this pair ranks #478,484 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paste vs pat
Shared letters: apt. Private to "paste": es. Private to "pat": -.
"paste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- paste ← apste · paset · passte · pastte · patse · ppaste · psate
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paste" and "pat" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "paste" vs "pat" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "paste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #478,484 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paste" and "pat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paste vs pester". 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 #478,484 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.