parmevsperteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,694
“parme” frequency rank
#1,418
“perte” frequency rank
18112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parme perte
Definition Bouclier circulaire de trois pieds de diamètre, employé par les vélites, chez les Romains. Privation de quelque chose de précieux, d’agréable, de commode, qu’on avait.

Where the eye mixes parme and perte

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

5 ch
parme
5 ch
perte

Visual trap between parme and perte

A purely visual mix-up. parme (\paʁm\) and perte (\pɛʁt\) 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 18112, 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\. perte is at rank #1,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁt\.

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 18112, this pair ranks #379,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of parme vs perte

Shared letters: epr. Private to "parme": am. Private to "perte": t.

"parme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parmeaprme · pamre · parem · parmme · parrme · pparme · prame
  • perteeprte · peret · perrte · pertte · petre · pperte · prete

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parme" and "perte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁm\ versus \pɛʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parme" vs "perte" - which ranks higher?
"perte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,418 in our French list, against #16,694 for "parme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "perte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parme" and "perte" 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 #379,934 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