perduevspursueConfusable pair

Quick tell: perdue is a adjective, pursue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perdue” is an adjective and “pursue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,254
“perdue” frequency rank
#4,624
“pursue” frequency rank
51878
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdue pursue
Definition Alternative spelling of perdu. To follow urgently, originally with intent to capture or harm; to chase.

Letter map: perdue vs pursue

Shared letters muted; letters that set perdue and pursue apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. perdue and pursue follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
perdue
6 ch
pursue

Grammar separator: perdue vs pursue

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: perdue is anadjective and pursueaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdue is recorded at frequency rank #47,254, classified as anadj. pursue is at rank #4,624, tagged as averb, pronounced /pəˈsjuː/.

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 51878, this pair ranks #161,703 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perdue vs pursue

Shared letters: epru. Private to "perdue": d. Private to "pursue": s.

"perdue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "pursue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdue ← eprdue · pedrue · perddue · perdeu · perrdue · perude · pperdue · predue
  • pursue ← ppursue · prusue · purrsue · purseu · purssue · puruse · pusrue · uprsue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perdue" and "pursue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perdue" is an adjective and "pursue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "perdue" or "pursue"?
"pursue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,624 in our English list, against #47,254 for "perdue". 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 "perdue" and "pursue". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perdue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pursue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,703 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdue" and "pursue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdue vs peruse". 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 #161,703 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