prey vs pure, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“prey” is a noun and “pure” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,873
“prey” frequency rank: #22,473
“pure” frequency rank: 72346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	prey	pure
Definition	Presa.	Puro.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prey and pure apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

prey

4 ch

pure

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prey is /pɹeɪ/ while pure is /ˈpjʊə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prey is recorded at frequency rank #49,873, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/. pure is at rank #22,473, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpjʊə/.

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 72346, this pair ranks #25,533 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prey vs pure

Shared letters: epr. Private to "prey": y. Private to "pure": u.

"prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "pure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

prey ← pery · pprey · preyy · prrey · prye · rpey
pure ← ppure · prue · puer · purre · upre

Frequency comparison

prey#49,873

pure#22,473

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prey" and "pure" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prey" is a noun and "pure" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "prey" or "pure"?

"pure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,473 in our Spanish list, against #49,873 for "prey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering prey vs pure

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “prey”; for an adjective, it's “pure”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “prey” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable