Pear or peer?
pear is a noun meaning “An edible fruit produced by the pear tree, similar to an apple but typically…”; peer is a verb meaning “To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something”. Use pear as a noun and peer as a verb (peer is also a noun: “A look; a glance”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) peer is about 4.7 times as common as pear.
What is the difference between pear and peer?
| pear | peer | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | verb, noun |
| Meaning | An edible fruit produced by the pear tree, similar to an apple but typically elongated towards the stem A type of fruit tree (Pyrus communis) An indigenous group in Cambodia and Thailand | To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something A look; a glance Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else) |
| Example | none recorded | As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d With broad and burning face |
| Forms | pears | peers, peering, peered |
| Pronunciation | /pɛə/ /pɛː/ /pɛɹ/ | /pɪə/ /pɪː/ /pɪjə/ |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words | 14 times per million words |
Sources: pear and peer in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of pear and peer
pear
- 1
An edible fruit produced by the pear tree, similar to an apple but typically elongated towards the stem
- 2
An indigenous group in Cambodia and Thailand
- 3
A type of fruit tree (Pyrus communis)
- 4
The wood of the pear tree (pearwood, pear wood)
- 5
Choke pear (a torture device)
- 6
avocado, alligator pear
- 7
A desaturated chartreuse yellow colour, like that of a pear
peer
- 1
To look with difficulty, or as if searching for something
As if thro’ a dungeon grate he peer’d With broad and burning face
- 2
A look; a glance
- 3
Somebody who is, or something that is, at a level or of a value equal (to that of something else)
- 4
To make equal in rank
- 5
informalSomeone who pees, someone who urinates
- 6
Someone who is approximately the same age (as someone else)
- 7
To carry communications traffic terminating on one's own network on an equivalency basis to and from another network, usually without charge or payment. Contrast with transit where one pays another…
- 8
A noble with a title, i.e., a peerage, and in times past, with certain rights and privileges not enjoyed by commoners
a peer of the realm
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, pear or peer?
pear appears 3.0 times per million words; peer 14 times per million words.
pear 3.0 times per million wordspeer 14 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search pear vs peer?
“pear vs peer” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“peer vs pear”, “pear or peer”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.