pègrevsphareWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,988
“pègre” frequency rank
#6,638
“phare” frequency rank
48626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pègre phare
Definition Catégorie des gens sans aveu qui vivent de friponnerie ou d’escroquerie. Tour construite à l’entrée d’un port ou à proximité d’une côte, et portant à son sommet un feu qui sert à guider les vaisseaux pendant la nuit.

Where the eye mixes pègre and phare

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pègre (CVCCV) and phare (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pègre
5 ch
phare

Look-alike desk: pègre vs phare

A purely visual mix-up. pègre (\pɛɡʁ\) and phare (\faʁ\) 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 48626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pègre is recorded at frequency rank #41,988, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛɡʁ\. phare is at rank #6,638, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faʁ\.

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 48626, this pair ranks #177,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pègre vs phare

Shared letters: epr. Private to "pègre": gè. Private to "phare": ah.

"pègre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "phare" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • phare ← hpare · pahre · phaer · pharre · phhare · phrae · pphare

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pègre" and "phare" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛɡʁ\ versus \faʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pègre" vs "phare" - which ranks higher?
"phare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,638 in our French list, against #41,988 for "pègre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pègre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "phare" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pègre" and "phare" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pègre vs Perl". 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 #177,358 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