pègrevspleuréWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pègre is a noun, pleuré is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pègre” is a noun and “pleuré” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,988
“pègre” frequency rank
#10,380
“pleuré” frequency rank
52368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pègre pleuré
Definition Catégorie des gens sans aveu qui vivent de friponnerie ou d’escroquerie. Dont on se désole de la disparition.

Where the eye mixes pègre and pleuré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pègre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pleuré's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pègre
6 ch
pleuré

Look-alike desk: pègre vs pleuré

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pègre is \pɛɡʁ\ while pleuré is \plœ.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52368, 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\. pleuré is at rank #10,380, tagged as anadj, pronounced \plœ.ʁe\.

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 52368, this pair ranks #148,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pègre vs pleuré

Shared letters: epr. Private to "pègre": . Private to "pleuré": lué.

"pègre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pleuré" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pègre" and "pleuré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pègre" is a noun and "pleuré" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pègre" vs "pleuré" - which ranks higher?
"pleuré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,380 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 "pleuré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,209 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pègre" and "pleuré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pègre vs Perl". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #148,209 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