Which to use
“peril” is a noun and “perish” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,206
- “peril” frequency rank
- #19,162
- “perish” frequency rank
- 36368
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peril | perish |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A situation of serious and immediate danger. | To decay and disappear; to waste away to nothing. |
Where the eye mixes peril and perish
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. peril runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against perish's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between peril and perish
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peril is /ˈpɛɹɪl/ while perish is /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peril is recorded at frequency rank #17,206, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛɹɪl/. perish is at rank #19,162, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/.
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 36368, this pair ranks #303,785 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peril vs perish
Shared letters: eipr. Private to "peril": l. Private to "perish": hs.
"peril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "perish" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "peril" and "perish" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "peril" or "perish" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "peril" and "perish" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "peril" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "perish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,785 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peril" and "perish" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perish vs purist". 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 #303,785 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.