Which to use
“pastry” and “pasts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,378
- “pastry” frequency rank
- #44,990
- “pasts” frequency rank
- 59368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pastry | pasts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A baked food item made from flour and fat pastes such as pie crust; also tarts, bear claws, napoleons, puff pastries, etc. | plural of past |
Where the eye mixes pastry and pasts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pastry runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against pasts's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: pastry vs pasts
A purely visual mix-up. pastry (/ˈpeɪstɹi/) and pasts (/pɑːsts/) 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 59368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pastry is recorded at frequency rank #14,378, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪstɹi/. pasts is at rank #44,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɑːsts/.
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 59368, this pair ranks #106,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pastry vs pasts
Shared letters: apst. Private to "pastry": ry. Private to "pasts": -.
"pastry" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "pasts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pastry" for "pasts" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pastry" vs "pasts" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pastry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pasts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pastry" and "pasts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Palos vs pasts". 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 #106,623 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.