Which to use
“pend” is a verb and “penny” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,710
- “pend” frequency rank
- #22,026
- “penny” frequency rank
- 46736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pend | penny |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de pendre. | Pièce de monnaie au Royaume-Uni, qui a la valeur d’un centième d’une livre depuis la réforme monétaire de 1971, et qui avait la valeur d’un douzième d’un shilling, soit 1/240 d’une livre. |
Where the eye mixes pend and penny
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pend with penny
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pend is \pɑ̃\ while penny is \pɛ.ni\. 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 46736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pend is recorded at frequency rank #24,710, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃\. penny is at rank #22,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.ni\.
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 46736, this pair ranks #192,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pend vs penny
Shared letters: enp. Private to "pend": d. Private to "penny": y.
"pend" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "penny" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pend" for "penny" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pend" or "penny"?
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 "pend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "penny" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #192,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pend" and "penny" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pend vs pernod". 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 #192,529 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.