Which to use
“pègre” and “poire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,988
- “pègre” frequency rank
- #15,720
- “poire” frequency rank
- 57708
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pègre | poire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Catégorie des gens sans aveu qui vivent de friponnerie ou d’escroquerie. | Fruit à pépin, de saveur agréable, ordinairement de forme oblongue, et qui va en diminuant vers la queue. |
Where the eye mixes pègre and poire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pègre (CVCCV) and poire (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses pègre with poire
A purely visual mix-up. pègre (\pɛɡʁ\) and poire (\pwaʁ\) 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 57708, 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\. poire is at rank #15,720, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwaʁ\.
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 57708, this pair ranks #113,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pègre vs poire
Shared letters: epr. Private to "pègre": gè. Private to "poire": io.
"pègre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "poire" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- poire ← opire · piore · poier · poirre · ppoire
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pègre" and "poire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pègre" or "poire" show up more?
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 "pègre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pègre" and "poire" 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 #113,417 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.