peur
\pœʁ\
The verdict
“peur” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #467) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #467
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Crainte, frayeur, émotion pénible produite par l’idée ou la vue d’un danger.
Corpus desk
Index FR-peur · peur · French
peur · rank #467 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #467
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH mai
Nearest frequency peer: mai (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “peur”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- juin
juin
99,537 corpus weight
- lorsque
lorsque
99,536 corpus weight
- mai
mai
99,535 corpus weight
- peur
peur
99,534 corpus weight
- plein
plein
99,533 corpus weight
- police
police
99,532 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “peur” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | peur |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pœʁ\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #467 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “peur” sits in French frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for peur is neighbouring look-alikes ("pu", "Pr", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pœʁ\. Frequency #467 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for peur, with forms such as "epur", "peru", and "peurr". 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, "pu", "Pr", "pub", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is peur, spelled P-E-U-R.
Definition
- 1Crainte, frayeur, émotion pénible produite par l’idée ou la vue d’un danger.
- 2Crainte faible ; appréhension.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how peur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Aucun être humain ne peut supporter une terreur continuelle : la peur se retire finalement au second plan de l’esprit ; on l’accepte, on la met en place et on n’en veut plus entendre parler.
À peine, dans une halte où se terminait la mission des meneurs de chevaux, je pus remarquer que les gradés qui faisaient le tri des hommes et des chevaux avaient grand’peur des lieux où ils nous envoyaient. Cette peur que l’on a de loin, et que j’ai éprouvée quelquefois dans la suite, diffère beaucoup de la vraie peur, mais elle n’est pas moins pénible.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- epur
- peru
- peurr
- ppeur
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of peur - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "peur", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "peur". Here's where to go from here.
- "peur" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "pu". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #467 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.