PBS

\pe.be.ɛs\

/\pe.be.ɛs\/ name

The verdict

“PBS” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #33,820) as a proper noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#33,820
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Public Broadcasting Service, réseau public américain de télévision.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pbs · PBS · French

PBS · rank #33,820 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #33,820
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-0 0 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH payeurs

Nearest frequency peer: payeurs (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « PBS »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « PBS » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

PBS vs pu
0% similar
PBS vs PS
67% similar
PBS vs PQ
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for PBS
PropertyValue
HeadwordPBS
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\pe.be.ɛs\
Letters3
Frequency rank#33,820
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « PBS »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).PBSse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « payeurs » (#33,819), « PDA » (#33,821), « partagera » (#33,818). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « PBS » est au #33,820. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for PBS is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PS", …), not just typos; it is aproper noun pronounced \pe.be.ɛs\. Frequency #33,820 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Gloss: "Public Broadcasting Service, réseau public américain de télévision.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for PBS, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is PBS, spelled P-B-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Public Broadcasting Service, réseau public américain de télévision.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how PBS appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Après avoir été diffusée aux États-Unis et au Canada sur le réseau PBS et ses stations affiliées, la saison 2 de Free Markets Series …

This word in other languages

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

How do you spell "PBS"?
"PBS" is spelled P-B-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.be.ɛs\.
What does "PBS" mean?
As a proper noun, "PBS" means: Public Broadcasting Service, réseau public américain de télévision.
What words are commonly confused with "PBS"?
"PBS" is commonly confused with "pu", "PS", "PQ". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "PBS"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "PBS" is \pe.be.ɛs\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "PBS" come from?
"PBS" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "PBS", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list