PCR
\pe.se.ɛʁ\
The verdict
“PCR” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #39,452) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #39,452
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Amplification en chaîne par polymérase, méthode qui permet de créer un grand nombre de copies d’une séquence d’ADN ou d’ARN.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pcr · PCR · French
PCR · rank #39,452 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #39,452
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-0 0 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH PCI
Nearest frequency peer: PCI (-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 « PCR »
Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous
- payable
payable
60,552 corpus weight
- PCI
PCI
60,550 corpus weight
- PCR
PCR
60,549 corpus weight
- perpendicul…
perpendiculaires
60,548 corpus weight
- persévérant
persévérant
60,547 corpus weight
- Petr
Petr
60,546 corpus weight
What this shows Les barres placent « PCR » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.
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 | PCR |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pe.se.ɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #39,452 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rang de corpus près des confusables de « PCR »
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for PCR is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "PS", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pe.se.ɛʁ\. Frequency #39,452 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Zero misspellings are on record for PCR in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pu", "PS", "PQ", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is PCR, spelled P-C-R.
Definition
- 1Amplification en chaîne par polymérase, méthode qui permet de créer un grand nombre de copies d’une séquence d’ADN ou d’ARN.
- 2Abréviation de test PCR, test diagnostic utilisant l’amplification en chaîne par polymérase pour détecter une séquence d’ADN ou d’ARN d'un virus dans un prélèvement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how PCR appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Si initialement la PCR était considérée comme une solution de remplacement des techniques de clonage, en réalité ses potentialités ont été sous-évaluées, étant donné ses applications actuelles.
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 "PCR"?
What does "PCR" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "PCR"?
How do you pronounce "PCR"?
What language does "PCR" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "PCR", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).