perilvspersWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: peril is a noun, pers is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peril” is a noun and “pers” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,206
“peril” frequency rank
#36,278
“pers” frequency rank
53484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peril pers
Definition A situation of serious and immediate danger. That which belongs to per, theirs (singular): possessive case of per, used in place of a noun.

Letter map: peril vs pers

Shared letters muted; letters that set peril and pers apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
peril
4 ch
pers

Role in the sentence - peril and pers

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: peril is anoun and persapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53484, 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/. pers is at rank #36,278, tagged as apron.

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 53484, this pair ranks #148,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peril vs pers

Shared letters: epr. Private to "peril": il. Private to "pers": s.

"peril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perilepril · peirl · perill · perli · perril · pperil · preil
  • perseprs · perrs · pesr · ppers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peril" and "pers" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peril" is a noun and "pers" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "peril" or "pers"?
"peril" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,206 in our English list, against #36,278 for "pers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "peril" and "pers".

  • Full dictionary entry for "peril" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peril" and "pers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs pers". 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 #148,564 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