Which to use
“premier” is an adjective and “premise” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,696
- “premier” frequency rank
- #9,384
- “premise” frequency rank
- 12080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | premier | premise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Foremost; first or highest in quality or degree. | A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition. |
Where the eye mixes premier and premise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. premier (CCVCVVC) and premise (CCVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between premier and premise
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: premier is /ˈpɹɛ.mi.ɛː/ while premise is /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
premier is recorded at frequency rank #2,696, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɹɛ.mi.ɛː/. premise is at rank #9,384, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/.
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 12080, this pair ranks #483,540 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of premier vs premise
Shared letters: eimpr. Private to "premier": -. Private to "premise": s.
"premier" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC · "premise" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "premier" and "premise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "premier" vs "premise" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "premier" and "premise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "premier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "premise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #483,540 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "premier" and "premise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "premier vs presser". 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 #483,540 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.