Which to use
“practice” is a noun and “practise” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #931
- “practice” frequency rank
- #14,615
- “practise” frequency rank
- 15546
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | practice | practise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Repetition of an activity to improve a skill. | To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity. |
Same sound, different letters: practice vs practise
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - practice and practise
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: practice and practise carry the same recorded pronunciation, /ˈpɹæktɪs/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - c in “practice” becomes s in “practise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
practice is recorded at frequency rank #931, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹæktɪs/. practise is at rank #14,615, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɹæktɪs/.
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 15546, this pair ranks #463,320 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of practice vs practise
Shared letters: aceiprt. Private to "practice": -. Private to "practise": s.
"practice" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV · "practise" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "practice" and "practise" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "practice" or "practise" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "practice" / "practise". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "practice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "practise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #463,320 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "practice" and "practise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "practise vs proactive". 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 #463,320 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.