Which to use
“patten” and “patter” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,358
- “patten” frequency rank
- #38,547
- “patter” frequency rank
- 71905
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patten | patter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of various types of footwear with thick soles, often used to elevate the foot, especially wooden clogs. | A soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface. |
Where the eye mixes patten and patter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. patten and patter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: patten vs patter
A purely visual mix-up. patten (/ˈpat(ə)n/) and patter (/ˈpæt.ə/) 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 a single letter - n in “patten” becomes r in “patter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patten is recorded at frequency rank #33,358, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpat(ə)n/. patter is at rank #38,547, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæt.ə/.
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 71905, this pair ranks #44,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of patten vs patter
Shared letters: aept. Private to "patten": n. Private to "patter": r.
"patten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "patter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "patten" for "patter" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "patten" or "patter" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "patten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "patter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patten" and "patter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "patter vs pester". 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 #44,941 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.