Which to use
“practise” is a verb and “precise” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,615
- “practise” frequency rank
- #5,825
- “precise” frequency rank
- 20440
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | practise | precise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To repeat (an activity) as a way of improving one's skill in that activity. | Both exact and accurate. |
Where the eye mixes practise and precise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: practise vs precise
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: practise is /ˈpɹæktɪs/ while precise is /pɹɪˈsaɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20440, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
practise is recorded at frequency rank #14,615, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpɹæktɪs/. precise is at rank #5,825, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɹɪˈsaɪs/.
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 20440, this pair ranks #431,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of practise vs precise
Shared letters: ceiprs. Private to "practise": at. Private to "precise": -.
"practise" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV · "precise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "practise" and "precise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "practise" or "precise"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "practise" and "precise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "practise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "precise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "practise" and "precise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "precede vs precise". 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 #431,074 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.