Which to use
“patter” is a noun and “pitted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,547
- “patter” frequency rank
- #23,631
- “pitted” frequency rank
- 62178
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patter | pitted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A soft repeated sound, as of rain falling, or feet walking on a hard surface. | Having a surface marked by pits; pockmarked or alveolate. |
Letter map: patter vs pitted
Shared letters muted; letters that set patter and pitted apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. patter and pitted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: patter vs pitted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: patter is anoun and pittedanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patter is recorded at frequency rank #38,547, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpæt.ə/. pitted is at rank #23,631, tagged as anadj.
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 62178, this pair ranks #89,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of patter vs pitted
Shared letters: ept. Private to "patter": ar. Private to "pitted": di.
"patter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pitted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "patter" for "pitted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "patter" or "pitted"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "patter" and "pitted".
- Full dictionary entry for "patter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pitted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patter" and "pitted" 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 #89,931 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.