parmevspayeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,694
“parme” frequency rank
#3,028
“paye” frequency rank
19722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parme paye
Definition Bouclier circulaire de trois pieds de diamètre, employé par les vélites, chez les Romains. Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail.

Where the eye mixes parme and paye

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

5 ch
parme
4 ch
paye

Visual trap between parme and paye

A purely visual mix-up. parme (\paʁm\) and paye (\pɛj\) 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 19722, 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\. paye is at rank #3,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛj\.

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 19722, this pair ranks #371,874 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parme vs paye

Shared letters: aep. Private to "parme": mr. Private to "paye": y.

"parme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parmeaprme · pamre · parem · parmme · parrme · pparme · prame
  • payeapye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parme" for "paye" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\paʁm\ versus \pɛj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parme" vs "paye" - which ranks higher?
"paye" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,028 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,874 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parme" and "paye" 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 #371,874 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