paste

/peɪst/

//peɪst// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"paste" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“paste” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,183. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,183
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A soft moist mixture, in particular:

Corpus desk

Index EN-paste · paste · English

paste · rank #8,183 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,183
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH parked

Nearest frequency peer: parked (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “paste”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “paste” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

paste vs pat
60% similar
paste vs PST
0% similar
paste vs post
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for paste
PropertyValue
Headwordpaste
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/peɪst/
Letters5
Frequency rank#8,183
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “paste”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).pastelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “parked” (#8,182), “papa” (#8,181), “pioneer” (#8,185). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “paste” is #8,183. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around paste (IPA /peɪst/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,183 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for paste, with forms such as "apste", "paset", and "passte". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pat", "PST", "post", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t-der. Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English paste Engli… The correct English form is paste, spelled P-A-S-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A soft moist mixture, in particular:
  2. 2
    A soft moist mixture, in particular:
  3. 3
    A soft moist mixture, in particular:
  4. 4
    A soft moist mixture, in particular:
  5. 5
    A substance that behaves as a solid until a sufficiently large load or stress is applied, at which point it flows like a fluid
  6. 6
    A hard lead-containing glass, or an artificial gemstone made from this glass.
  7. 7
    Pasta.
  8. 8
    The mineral substance in which other minerals are embedded.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how paste appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. And that day month, he had the paste rolled out, and cut the fair twin's head off, and chopped her in pieces, and peppered her, and salted her, and put her in the pie, and sent it to the baker's, and ate it all, and picked the bones.
  2. Near-synonyms: glue, adhesive

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t-der. Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English paste English paste From Middle English paste, from Old French paste (modern pâte), from Late Latin pasta, from Ancient Greek παστά (pastá). Doublet of pasta. The verb is from the noun. Middle English had pasten (“to make a paste of; bake in a pastry”), also from the noun; compare Latin pistō and Medieval Latin pastillātus.

This word in other languages

pasta(Español)pâte(Français)Paste(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • apste
  • paset
  • passte
  • pastte
  • patse
  • ppaste
  • psate

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of paste - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

apste2paset2passte1pastte1patse2ppaste1psate2
Edit distance from "paste"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "paste"?
"paste" is spelled P-A-S-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is /peɪst/.
What does "paste" mean?
As a noun, "paste" means: A soft moist mixture, in particular:
What words are commonly confused with "paste"?
"paste" is commonly confused with "pat", "PST", "post". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "paste"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "paste" is /peɪst/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "paste"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t-der. Ancient Greek πάσσω (pássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tós Ancient Greek -τός (-tós) Ancient Greek παστός (pastós) Ancient Greek παστά (pastá)bor. Late Latin pasta Old French pastebor. Middle English p... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "paste", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

plaza#8,186Nixon#8,177mitch#8,171Ricky#8,197

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

skies7 variantsstare7 variantsballoon7 variantsbeers7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list