parlementvspayementConfusable pair

Which to use

“parlement” and “payement” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,300
“parlement” frequency rank
#33,395
“payement” frequency rank
34695
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parlement payement
Definition Dans l'ancienne France, jusqu'au XIIIᵉ siècle, assemblée des grands du royaume, que le roi convoquait pour traiter des affaires importantes. Variante orthographique de paiement.

Where the eye mixes parlement and payement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. parlement runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against payement's 8 (CVVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
parlement
8 ch
payement

Visual trap between parlement and payement

A purely visual mix-up. parlement (\paʁ.lə.mɑ̃\) and payement (\pɛ.mɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parlement is recorded at frequency rank #1,300, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.lə.mɑ̃\. payement is at rank #33,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.mɑ̃\.

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 34695, this pair ranks #282,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parlement vs payement

Shared letters: aemnpt. Private to "parlement": lr. Private to "payement": y.

"parlement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "payement" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parlementaprlement · palrement · parelment · parleemnt · parlemennt · parlementt · parlemetn · parlemment
  • payementapyement · paeyment · payeemnt · payemennt · payementt · payemetn · payemment · payemnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parlement" for "payement" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.lə.mɑ̃\ versus \pɛ.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parlement" or "payement"?
"parlement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,300 in our French list, against #33,395 for "payement". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "parlement" and "payement" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parlement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "payement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parlement" and "payement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parement vs payement". 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 #282,046 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