piecesvspricesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,957
“pieces” frequency rank
#1,403
“prices” frequency rank
3360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pieces prices
Definition plural of piece plural of price

Where the eye mixes pieces and prices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pieces
6 ch
prices

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pieces (/ˈpiːsɪz/) and prices (/ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) 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 3360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pieces is recorded at frequency rank #1,957, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiːsɪz/. prices is at rank #1,403, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/.

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 3360, this pair ranks #522,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pieces vs prices

Shared letters: ceips. Private to "pieces": -. Private to "prices": r.

"pieces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "prices" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piecesipeces · peices · picees · piecces · piecess · piecse · pieecs · ppieces
  • pricespirces · pprices · prcies · pricces · pricess · pricse · priecs · prrices

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pieces" and "prices" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpiːsɪz/ versus /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pieces" or "prices"?
"prices" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,403 in our English list, against #1,957 for "pieces". 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