pecvspecsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#47,251
“pec” frequency rank
#49,538
“pecs” frequency rank
96789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pec pecs
Definition The pectoralis major muscle. plural of pec

Letter map: pec vs pecs

Shared letters muted; letters that set pec and pecs apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pec runs 3 letters (CVC) against pecs's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
pec
4 ch
pecs

Spelling & dictionary notes on pec vs pecs

pec and pecs are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pec” sits inside “pecs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pec is recorded at frequency rank #47,251, classified as anoun. pecs is at rank #49,538, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛks/.

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 96789, this pair ranks #471 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pec vs pecs

Shared letters: cep. Private to "pec": -. Private to "pecs": s.

"pec" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pecs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecs ← epcs · pces · peccs · pecss · pesc · ppecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pec" and "pecs" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pec” sits inside “pecs”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pec" vs "pecs" - which ranks higher?
"pec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47,251 in our English list, against #49,538 for "pecs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "pec" and "pecs". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pecs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #471 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pec" and "pecs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peasy vs pecs". 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 #471 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list