per vs pir, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#339
“per” frequency rank: #47,260
“pir” frequency rank: 47599
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	per	pir
Definition	For each.	A Muslim holy man or religious leader, especially Sufi.

Where the eye mixes per and pir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

per

3 ch

pir

Why the eye confuses per with pir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: per is /pɜː/ while pir is /pɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “per” becomes i in “pir”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #339, classified as aprep, pronounced /pɜː/. pir is at rank #47,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɪə/.

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 47599, this pair ranks #200,913 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of per vs pir

Shared letters: pr. Private to "per": e. Private to "pir": i.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "pir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "per" for "pir" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "pir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "per" vs "pir" - which ranks higher?

"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #339 in our English list, against #47,260 for "pir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "per" and "pir" 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 "pir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #200,913 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"per" and "pir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pir vs PPA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #200,913 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.