Which to use
“pasts” and “piss” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,990
- “pasts” frequency rank
- #5,443
- “piss” frequency rank
- 50433
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pasts | piss |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of past | Urine. |
Where the eye mixes pasts and piss
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pasts vs piss
A purely visual mix-up. pasts (/pɑːsts/) and piss (/pɪs/) 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 50433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pasts is recorded at frequency rank #44,990, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːsts/. piss is at rank #5,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɪs/.
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 50433, this pair ranks #174,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pasts vs piss
Shared letters: ps. Private to "pasts": at. Private to "piss": i.
"pasts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "piss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pasts" and "piss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "pasts" or "piss" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pasts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pasts" and "piss" 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 #174,299 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.