pervspetraWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#339
“per” frequency rank
#20,457
“petra” frequency rank
20796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature per petra
Definition For each. stone, a weight equal to 14 pounds.

Letter map: per vs petra

Shared letters muted; letters that set per and petra apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
per
5 ch
petra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: per is apreposition and petraanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #339, classified as aprep, pronounced /pɜː/. petra is at rank #20,457, tagged as anoun.

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 20796, this pair ranks #428,593 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of per vs petra

Shared letters: epr. Private to "per": -. Private to "petra": at.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "petra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • petraeptra · perta · petar · petrra · pettra · ppetra · ptera

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "per" and "petra" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "petra" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "per" or "petra"?
"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #339 in our English list, against #20,457 for "petra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "per" and "petra". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "petra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,593 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "per" and "petra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Petey vs petra". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list