pastsvsPSTTell them apart

Quick tell: pasts is a noun, PST is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pasts” is a noun and “PST” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,990
“pasts” frequency rank
#19,948
“PST” frequency rank
64938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasts PST
Definition plural of past Initialism of Pacific Standard Time.

Letter map: pasts vs PST

Shared letters muted; letters that set pasts and PST apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
pasts
3 ch
PST

Role in the sentence - pasts and PST

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pasts is anoun and PSTaname. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64938, 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/. PST is at rank #19,948, tagged as aname.

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 64938, this pair ranks #75,236 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pasts vs PST

Shared letters: pst. Private to "pasts": a. Private to "PST": -.

"pasts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "PST" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pastsapsts · passts · pastss · pastts · ppasts · psats

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pasts" and "PST" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pasts" is a noun and "PST" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pasts" or "PST"?
"PST" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,948 in our English list, against #44,990 for "pasts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pasts" and "PST". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PST" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,236 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasts" and "PST" 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 #75,236 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list