Which to use
“patrol” and “payroll” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,720
- “patrol” frequency rank
- #10,250
- “payroll” frequency rank
- 15970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patrol | payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A going of the rounds along the chain of sentinels and between the posts, by a guard, usually consisting of three or four men, to insure greater security from attacks on the outposts. | A list of employees who receive salary or wages, together with the amounts due to each. |
Where the eye mixes patrol and payroll
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: patrol vs payroll
A purely visual mix-up. patrol (/pəˈtɹəʊl/) and payroll (/ˈpeɪˌɹəʊl/) 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 15970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patrol is recorded at frequency rank #5,720, classified as anoun, pronounced /pəˈtɹəʊl/. payroll is at rank #10,250, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪˌɹəʊl/.
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 15970, this pair ranks #460,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of patrol vs payroll
Shared letters: alopr. Private to "patrol": t. Private to "payroll": y.
"patrol" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "payroll" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "patrol" and "payroll" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "patrol" or "payroll" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "patrol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payroll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #460,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patrol" and "payroll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Patil vs patrol". 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 #460,707 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.