Which to use
“pasty” is an adjective and “Patsy” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,783
- “pasty” frequency rank
- #24,858
- “Patsy” frequency rank
- 58641
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pasty | Patsy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Like paste, sticky. | A diminutive of the female given name Patricia. |
Letter map: pasty vs Patsy
Shared letters muted; letters that set pasty and Patsy apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - pasty and Patsy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pasty is anadjective and Patsyaname. On the page they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (st ↔ ts) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pasty is recorded at frequency rank #33,783, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpeɪsti/. Patsy is at rank #24,858, 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 58641, this pair ranks #111,245 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pasty vs Patsy
Shared letters: apsty. Private to "pasty": -. Private to "Patsy": -.
"pasty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "Patsy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pasty" for "Patsy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pasty" or "Patsy"?
What to do next
Pair "pasty" vs "Patsy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "pasty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Patsy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #111,245 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pasty" and "Patsy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pappy vs pasty". 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 #111,245 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.