Which to use
“past” is an adjective and “pax” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,081
- “past” frequency rank
- #26,136
- “pax” frequency rank
- 46217
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | past | pax |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | passado | indivíduo, cabeça |
Letter map: past vs pax
Shared letters muted; letters that set past and pax apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. past runs 4 letters (CVCC) against pax's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - past and pax
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: past is anadjective and paxanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
past is recorded at frequency rank #20,081, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɑːst/. pax is at rank #26,136, tagged as anoun.
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 46217, this pair ranks #19,125 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of past vs pax
Shared letters: ap. Private to "past": st. Private to "pax": x.
"past" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pax" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- past ← apst · passt · pastt · pats · ppast · psat
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "past" for "pax" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "past" or "pax" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "past" and "pax". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "past" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pax" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,125 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "past" and "pax" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pax vs pix". 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 #19,125 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.