pair
\pɛʁ\
The verdict
“pair” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #7,212 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,212
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Personne de même condition et de même rang dans l’état.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pair |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #7,212 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pair” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for pair is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #7,212 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for pair, with forms such as "apir", "pairr", and "piar". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Pr", "pi", "pas", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pair, spelled P-A-I-R.
Definition
- 1Personne de même condition et de même rang dans l’état.
- 2Titre de dignité porté au Moyen Âge par les grands vassaux du roi.
- 3Seigneur qui possédait des terres érigées en pairies et qui avaient droit de séance au parlement de Paris.
- 4Membre de la Chambre des pairs en France de 1815 à 1848.
- 5Membre de la Chambre des Lords en Angleterre.
- 6Mâle ou femelle de certains oiseaux, et particulièrement de la tourterelle, en parlant de l’un par rapport à l’autre.
- 7Parité de change qui résulte de la comparaison du prix d’une espèce dans un pays avec le prix de la même espèce dans un autre pays.
- 8Personne faisant le même métier, occupant la même profession, une fonction similaire.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apir,pairr,piar,ppair
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pair - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “pair”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-A-I-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Pr” - see the side-by-side comparison. pair vs Pr
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.