peeksvspesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: peeks is a verb, pes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peeks” is a verb and “pes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,252
“peeks” frequency rank
#28,668
“pes” frequency rank
75920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peeks pes
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of peek the foot of a human

Where the eye mixes peeks and pes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
peeks
3 ch
pes

Visual trap between peeks and pes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peeks is /piːks/ while pes is /peɪ̯s/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peeks is recorded at frequency rank #47,252, classified as averb, pronounced /piːks/. pes is at rank #28,668, tagged as anoun, pronounced /peɪ̯s/.

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 75920, this pair ranks #31,648 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peeks vs pes

Shared letters: eps. Private to "peeks": k. Private to "pes": -.

"peeks" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peeksepeks · peekks · peekss · peesk · pekes · peks · ppeeks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peeks" for "pes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peeks" is a verb and "pes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "peeks" vs "pes" - which ranks higher?
"pes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,668 in our English list, against #47,252 for "peeks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "peeks" and "pes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peeks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,648 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peeks" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs peeks". 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 #31,648 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