pcsvsperTell them apart

Quick tell: pcs is a noun, per is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pcs” is a noun and “per” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,084
“pcs” frequency rank
#339
“per” frequency rank
11423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pcs per
Definition plural of pc (“piece”) For each.

Letter map: pcs vs per

Shared letters muted; letters that set pcs and per apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
pcs
3 ch
per

Part-of-speech tell for pcs / per

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pcs is anoun and perapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pcs is recorded at frequency rank #11,084, classified as anoun. per is at rank #339, tagged as aprep, pronounced /pɜː/.

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 11423, this pair ranks #487,127 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pcs vs per

Shared letters: p. Private to "pcs": cs. Private to "per": er.

"pcs" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "per" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pcs" for "per" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pcs" is a noun and "per" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "pcs" or "per" show up more?
"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #339 in our English list, against #11,084 for "pcs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "pcs" vs "per" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pcs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "per" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #487,127 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pcs" and "per" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pcs vs PPA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #487,127 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list