Which to use
“payed” is a verb and “pye” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,911
- “payed” frequency rank
- #46,714
- “pye” frequency rank
- 77625
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payed | pye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of paid. | Archaic spelling of pie (pastry food). |
Letter map: payed vs pye
Shared letters muted; letters that set payed and pye apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. payed runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against pye's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - payed and pye
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: payed is averb and pyeanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payed is recorded at frequency rank #30,911, classified as averb. pye is at rank #46,714, tagged as anoun.
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 77625, this pair ranks #26,755 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of payed vs pye
Shared letters: epy. Private to "payed": ad. Private to "pye": -.
"payed" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "pye" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- payed ← apyed · paeyd · payde · payedd · payyed · ppayed · pyaed
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "payed" for "pye" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "payed" or "pye" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "payed" and "pye". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "payed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,755 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payed" and "pye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PPA vs pye". 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 #26,755 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.