PetervspetraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,402
“Peter” frequency rank
#20,457
“petra” frequency rank
21859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Peter petra
Definition radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter P. stone, a weight equal to 14 pounds.

Letter map: Peter vs petra

Shared letters muted; letters that set Peter and petra apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Peter
5 ch
petra

Corpus notes: Peter and petra

Peter and petra are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Peter is recorded at frequency rank #1,402, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiːtə/. petra is at rank #20,457, tagged as anoun.

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 21859, this pair ranks #420,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Peter vs petra

Shared letters: eprt. Private to "Peter": -. Private to "petra": a.

"Peter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "petra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Peterepter · peetr · peterr · petre · petter · ppeter · pteer
  • petraeptra · perta · petar · petrra · pettra · ppetra · ptera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Peter" for "petra" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Peter" vs "petra" - which ranks higher?
"Peter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,402 in our English list, against #20,457 for "petra". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Peter" and "petra". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Peter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "petra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Peter" and "petra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Petey vs petra". 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 #420,831 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