PassyvsPoissyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,068
“Passy” frequency rank
#23,980
“Poissy” frequency rank
53048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Passy Poissy
Definition Localité rattachée à Paris en 1860, 16ᵉ arrondissement de Paris. Commune française, située dans le département des Yvelines.

Where the eye mixes Passy and Poissy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Passy runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Poissy's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Passy
6 ch
Poissy

Look-alike desk: Passy vs Poissy

A purely visual mix-up. Passy (\pa.si\) and Poissy (\pwa.si\) 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 53048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Passy is recorded at frequency rank #29,068, classified as aname, pronounced \pa.si\. Poissy is at rank #23,980, tagged as aname, pronounced \pwa.si\.

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 53048, this pair ranks #143,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Passy vs Poissy

Shared letters: psy. Private to "Passy": a. Private to "Poissy": io.

"Passy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Poissy" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Passyapssy · passyy · pasys · ppassy · psasy
  • Poissyopissy · piossy · poissyy · poisy · poisys · posisy · ppoissy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Passy" and "Poissy" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pa.si\ versus \pwa.si\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "Passy" or "Poissy" show up more?
"Poissy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,980 in our French list, against #29,068 for "Passy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Passy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Poissy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Passy" and "Poissy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panse vs Passy". 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 #143,460 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