Which to use
“pate” and “putt” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,784
- “pate” frequency rank
- #23,957
- “putt” frequency rank
- 57741
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pate | putt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The head, particularly the top or crown. | The act of tapping a golf ball lightly on a putting green. |
Where the eye mixes pate and putt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pate (CVCV) and putt (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: pate vs putt
A purely visual mix-up. pate (/peɪt/) and putt (/pʌt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pate is recorded at frequency rank #33,784, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪt/. putt is at rank #23,957, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pʌt/.
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 57741, this pair ranks #117,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pate vs putt
Shared letters: pt. Private to "pate": ae. Private to "putt": u.
"pate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "putt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pate" and "putt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pate" or "putt"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "putt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #117,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pate" and "putt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pate vs Pyke". 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 #117,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.