Which to use
“palm” and “past” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,104
- “palm” frequency rank
- #28,284
- “past” frequency rank
- 49388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | palm | past |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Palmaire, qui concerne la paume. | Ancien. |
Where the eye mixes palm and past
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. palm and past follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses palm with past
A purely visual mix-up. palm ([pɑm]) and past (\past\) 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 49388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
palm is recorded at frequency rank #21,104, classified as anadj, pronounced [pɑm]. past is at rank #28,284, tagged as anadj, pronounced \past\.
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 49388, this pair ranks #171,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of palm vs past
Shared letters: ap. Private to "palm": lm. Private to "past": st.
"palm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "palm" for "past" ever safe?
Frequency check: "palm" vs "past" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "palm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "past" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "palm" and "past" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "past vs peso". 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 #171,114 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.