parkourvsparlorWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“parkour” and “parlor” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,621
“parkour” frequency rank
#18,646
“parlor” frequency rank
56267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parkour parlor
Definition An athletic discipline, in which practitioners traverse any environment in the most efficient way possible using their physical abilities, and which commonly involves running, jumping, vaulting, rolling, flipping, and other similar physical movements. The living room of a house, or a room for entertaining guests; a room for talking; a sitting-room or drawing room.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set parkour and parlor apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
parkour
6 ch
parlor

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. parkour (/pɑːˈkʊə/) and parlor (/ˈpɑːlə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parkour is recorded at frequency rank #37,621, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːˈkʊə/. parlor is at rank #18,646, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑːlə/.

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 56267, this pair ranks #127,502 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parkour vs parlor

Shared letters: aopr. Private to "parkour": ku. Private to "parlor": l.

"parkour" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "parlor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parkouraprkour · pakrour · parkkour · parkoru · parkourr · parkuor · parokur · parrkour
  • parloraprlor · palror · parllor · parlorr · parlro · parolr · parrlor · pparlor

Frequency comparison

parkour#37,621
parlor#18,646

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parkour" and "parlor" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɑːˈkʊə/ versus /ˈpɑːlə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parkour" or "parlor"?
"parlor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,646 in our English list, against #37,621 for "parkour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering parkour vs parlor

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “parkour” 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