Which to use
“per” is a preposition and “perry” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #339
- “per” frequency rank
- #4,971
- “perry” frequency rank
- 5310
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | per | perry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | For each. | A fermented alcoholic beverage made from pears, similar to hard apple cider. |
Where the eye mixes per and perry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: per vs perry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: per is /pɜː/ while perry is /ˈpɛɹ.i/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “per” sits inside “perry”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
per is recorded at frequency rank #339, classified as aprep, pronounced /pɜː/. perry is at rank #4,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛɹ.i/.
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 5310, this pair ranks #515,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of per vs perry
Shared letters: epr. Private to "per": -. Private to "perry": y.
"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "perry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- perry ← eprry · perryy · pery · peryr · pperry · prery
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "per" and "perry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "per" vs "perry" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "per" and "perry" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "per" and "perry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perry vs Petey". 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 #515,823 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.