pay vs prey, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pay” is a verb and “prey” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,167
“pay” frequency rank: #49,873
“prey” frequency rank: 73040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pay	prey
Definition	Pagar.	Presa.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pay and prey apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

pay

4 ch

prey

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pay is /peɪ/ while prey is /pɹeɪ/. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pay is recorded at frequency rank #23,167, classified as averb, pronounced /peɪ/. prey is at rank #49,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/.

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 73040, this pair ranks #24,121 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pay vs prey

Shared letters: py. Private to "pay": a. Private to "prey": er.

"pay" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

prey ← pery · pprey · preyy · prrey · prye · rpey

Frequency comparison

pay#23,167

prey#49,873

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pay" and "prey" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pay" is a verb and "prey" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "pay" or "prey"?

"pay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,167 in our Spanish list, against #49,873 for "prey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pay vs prey

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pay”; for a noun, it's “prey”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pay” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable