piecevsplaceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#975
“piece” frequency rank
#187
“place” frequency rank
1162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piece place
Definition A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts. An area; somewhere within an area.

Where the eye mixes piece and place

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
piece
5 ch
place

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. piece (/piːs/) and place (/pleɪs/) 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 1162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piece is recorded at frequency rank #975, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːs/. place is at rank #187, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pleɪs/.

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 1162, this pair ranks #527,970 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of piece vs place

Shared letters: cep. Private to "piece": i. Private to "place": al.

"piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "place" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pieceipece · peice · picee · piecce · pieec · ppiece
  • placelpace · palce · placce · plaec · plcae · pllace · pplace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piece" and "place" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/piːs/ versus /pleɪs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "piece" or "place"?
"place" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #187 in our English list, against #975 for "piece". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list