peasevsphageWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pease” and “phage” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,149
“pease” frequency rank
#43,841
“phage” frequency rank
80990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pease phage
Definition Alternative form of pea (“common plant; its edible seed”). A virus that is parasitic on bacteria.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pease and phage apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
pease
5 ch
phage

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pease (/piːz/) and phage (/feɪd͡ʒ/) 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 80990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pease is recorded at frequency rank #37,149, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːz/. phage is at rank #43,841, tagged as anoun, pronounced /feɪd͡ʒ/.

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 80990, this pair ranks #18,663 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pease vs phage

Shared letters: aep. Private to "pease": s. Private to "phage": gh.

"pease" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "phage" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peaseepase · paese · peaes · peasse · pesae · ppease
  • phagehpage · pahge · phaeg · phagge · phgae · phhage · pphage

Frequency comparison

pease#37,149
phage#43,841

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pease" and "phage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/piːz/ versus /feɪd͡ʒ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pease" or "phage"?
"pease" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,149 in our English list, against #43,841 for "phage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pease vs phage

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pease” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list