partitionvsperditionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,046
“partition” frequency rank
#28,287
“perdition” frequency rank
38333
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partition perdition
Definition L’ensemble ou la réunion de toutes les parties d’une composition musicale, écrites les unes au-dessous des autres, de manière à se correspondre exactement. Dégât, dissipation.

Where the eye mixes partition and perdition

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. partition and perdition follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
partition
9 ch
perdition

Why the eye confuses partition with perdition

A purely visual mix-up. partition (\paʁ.ti.sjɔ̃\) and perdition (\pɛʁ.di.sjɔ̃\) 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 38333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partition is recorded at frequency rank #10,046, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.ti.sjɔ̃\. perdition is at rank #28,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.di.sjɔ̃\.

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 38333, this pair ranks #255,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partition vs perdition

Shared letters: inoprt. Private to "partition": a. Private to "perdition": de.

"partition" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "perdition" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partition ← aprtition · parittion · parrtition · partiiton · partitino · partitionn · partitoin · partittion
  • perdition ← eprdition · pedrition · perddition · perdiiton · perditino · perditionn · perditoin · perdittion

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partition" and "perdition" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.ti.sjɔ̃\ versus \pɛʁ.di.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "partition" or "perdition" show up more?
"partition" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,046 in our French list, against #28,287 for "perdition". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "partition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdition" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partition" and "perdition" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdition vs pétition". 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 #255,982 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