Which to use
“pers” is a pronoun and “petri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,278
- “pers” frequency rank
- #29,786
- “petri” frequency rank
- 66064
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pers | petri |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That which belongs to per, theirs (singular): possessive case of per, used in place of a noun. | Ellipsis of petri dish. |
Letter map: pers vs petri
Shared letters muted; letters that set pers and petri apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pers runs 4 letters (CVCC) against petri's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: pers vs petri
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pers is apronoun and petrianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pers is recorded at frequency rank #36,278, classified as apron. petri is at rank #29,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiːtɹi/.
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 66064, this pair ranks #69,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pers vs petri
Shared letters: epr. Private to "pers": s. Private to "petri": it.
"pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "petri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pers" for "petri" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pers" or "petri"?
After this comparison
Pair "pers" vs "petri" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "pers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "petri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,795 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pers" and "petri" 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 #69,795 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.