Which to use
“perm” and “pew” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,863
- “perm” frequency rank
- #16,994
- “pew” frequency rank
- 41857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perm | pew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of permanent wave (“hairstyle”). | One of the long benches in a church, seating several persons, usually fixed to the floor and facing the chancel. |
Where the eye mixes perm and pew
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses perm with pew
A purely visual mix-up. perm (/pɝm/) and pew (/pjuː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perm is recorded at frequency rank #24,863, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɝm/. pew is at rank #16,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pjuː/.
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 41857, this pair ranks #254,510 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of perm vs pew
Shared letters: ep. Private to "perm": mr. Private to "pew": w.
"perm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "pew" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- perm ← eprm · pemr · permm · perrm · pperm
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "perm" for "pew" ever safe?
Which is more common, "perm" or "pew"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "perm" and "pew" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "perm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #254,510 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perm" and "pew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs perm". 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 #254,510 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.