pervvspesTell them apart

Which to use

“perv” and “pes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,156
“perv” frequency rank
#28,668
“pes” frequency rank
65824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perv pes
Definition A pervert. the foot of a human

Where the eye mixes perv and pes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
perv
3 ch
pes

Look-alike desk: perv vs pes

A purely visual mix-up. perv (/pɜːv/) and pes (/peɪ̯s/) 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 65824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perv is recorded at frequency rank #37,156, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɜːv/. pes is at rank #28,668, tagged as anoun, pronounced /peɪ̯s/.

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 65824, this pair ranks #70,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perv vs pes

Shared letters: ep. Private to "perv": rv. Private to "pes": s.

"perv" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perveprv · perrv · pervv · pevr · pperv · prev

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perv" for "pes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɜːv/ versus /peɪ̯s/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perv" or "pes"?
"pes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,668 in our English list, against #37,156 for "perv". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perv" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perv" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs perv". 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 #70,905 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