parabolevspayableTell them apart

Quick tell: parabole is a noun, payable is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,308
“parabole” frequency rank
#39,449
“payable” frequency rank
62757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parabole payable
Definition Allégorie qui abrite une idée morale. Qui doit être payé à certains termes ou à certaines personnes.

Where the eye mixes parabole and payable

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. parabole runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against payable's 7 (CVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
parabole
7 ch
payable

Why the eye confuses parabole with payable

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parabole is \pa.ʁa.bɔl\ while payable is \pɛ.jabl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parabole is recorded at frequency rank #23,308, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁa.bɔl\. payable is at rank #39,449, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛ.jabl\.

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 62757, this pair ranks #85,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parabole vs payable

Shared letters: abelp. Private to "parabole": or. Private to "payable": y.

"parabole" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "payable" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parabole ← aprabole · paarbole · parabbole · parabloe · paraboel · parabolle · paraoble · parbaole
  • payable ← apyable · paayble · payabble · payabel · payablle · payalbe · paybale · payyable

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parabole" and "payable" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parabole" is a noun and "payable" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "parabole" vs "payable" - which ranks higher?
"parabole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,308 in our French list, against #39,449 for "payable". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parabole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "payable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parabole" and "payable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payable vs payables". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #85,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list