Which to use
“pavée” and “pesée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,525
- “pavée” frequency rank
- #33,826
- “pesée” frequency rank
- 70351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pavée | pesée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de digitale pourpre ou pourprée, Digitalis purpurea, plante de la famille des scrofulariacées. | Action de peser. |
Where the eye mixes pavée and pesée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pavée and pesée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pavée with pesée
A purely visual mix-up. pavée (\pa.ve\) and pesée (\pə.ze\) 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 70351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pavée is recorded at frequency rank #36,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ve\. pesée is at rank #33,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pə.ze\.
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 70351, this pair ranks #51,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pavée vs pesée
Shared letters: epé. Private to "pavée": av. Private to "pesée": s.
"pavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "pesée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pavée" and "pesée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "pavée" or "pesée"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pesée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pavée" and "pesée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pavée vs priée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #51,631 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.