parmevspauseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,694
“parme” frequency rank
#2,730
“pause” frequency rank
19424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parme pause
Definition Bouclier circulaire de trois pieds de diamètre, employé par les vélites, chez les Romains. Suspension ou interruption momentanée d’une action.

Where the eye mixes parme and pause

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
parme
5 ch
pause

Look-alike desk: parme vs pause

A purely visual mix-up. parme (\paʁm\) and pause (\poz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19424, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parme is recorded at frequency rank #16,694, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁm\. pause is at rank #2,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \poz\.

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 19424, this pair ranks #373,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parme vs pause

Shared letters: aep. Private to "parme": mr. Private to "pause": su.

"parme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parmeaprme · pamre · parem · parmme · parrme · pparme · prame
  • pauseapuse · pasue · paues · pausse · ppause · puase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parme" and "pause" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁm\ versus \poz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parme" or "pause"?
"pause" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,730 in our French list, against #16,694 for "parme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pause" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #373,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parme" and "pause" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parl vs parme". 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 #373,339 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