piecevspietyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#975
“piece” frequency rank
#25,880
“piety” frequency rank
26855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piece piety
Definition A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts. Reverence and devotion to God.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
piece
5 ch
piety

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. piece (/piːs/) and piety (/ˈpaɪ.ɪ.ti/) 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 26855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piece is recorded at frequency rank #975, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːs/. piety is at rank #25,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaɪ.ɪ.ti/.

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 26855, this pair ranks #383,514 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of piece vs piety

Shared letters: eip. Private to "piece": c. Private to "piety": ty.

"piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "piety" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pieceipece · peice · picee · piecce · pieec · ppiece
  • pietyipety · peity · pietty · pietyy · pieyt · pitey · ppiety

Frequency comparison

piece#975
piety#25,880

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piece" and "piety" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/piːs/ versus /ˈpaɪ.ɪ.ti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "piece" or "piety"?
"piece" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #975 in our English list, against #25,880 for "piety". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering piece vs piety

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 “piece” 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