pricevsprimeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: price is a noun, prime is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“price” is a noun and “prime” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,654
“price” frequency rank
#8,611
“prime” frequency rank
23265
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature price prime
Definition Preis Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs prim

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set price and prime apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
price
5 ch
prime

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: price is anoun and primeanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - c in “price” becomes m in “prime”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

price is recorded at frequency rank #14,654, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. prime is at rank #8,611, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpʁiːmə].

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 23265, this pair ranks #1,863,523 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of price vs prime

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "price": c. Private to "prime": m.

"price" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "prime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pricepirce · pprice · prcie · pricce · priec · prrice · rpice
  • primepirme · pprime · priem · primme · prmie · prrime · rpime

Frequency comparison

price#14,654
prime#8,611

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "price" and "prime" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "price" is a noun and "prime" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "price" or "prime"?
"prime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,611 in our German list, against #14,654 for "price". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering price vs prime

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list