Which to use
“peasant” is a noun and “pleasant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,653
- “peasant” frequency rank
- #4,973
- “pleasant” frequency rank
- 17626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peasant | pleasant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A member of the lowly social class that toils on the land, constituted by small farmers and tenants, sharecroppers, farmhands and other laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in agriculture and horticulture. | Giving pleasure; pleasing in manner. |
Where the eye mixes peasant and pleasant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses peasant with pleasant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peasant is /ˈpɛzənt/ while pleasant is /ˈplɛz.ənt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peasant is recorded at frequency rank #12,653, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛzənt/. pleasant is at rank #4,973, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈplɛz.ənt/.
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 17626, this pair ranks #450,218 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peasant vs pleasant
Shared letters: aenpst. Private to "peasant": -. Private to "pleasant": l.
"peasant" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "pleasant" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peasant" for "pleasant" ever safe?
Which is more common, "peasant" or "pleasant"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "peasant" and "pleasant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "peasant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pleasant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,218 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peasant" and "pleasant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peasant vs peasantry". 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 #450,218 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.