Which to use
“peine” and “pépite” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #483
- “peine” frequency rank
- #22,667
- “pépite” frequency rank
- 23150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peine | pépite |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Punition, sanction ou châtiment infligé(e) pour une faute commise, pour un acte jugé répréhensible ou coupable, et en particulier punition pour une infraction à la loi et prononcée par un jugement. | Morceau d’or natif plus grand qu’un grain d'or ou une paillette, détaché de sa gangue et roulé par les eaux. |
Where the eye mixes peine and pépite
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against pépite's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between peine and pépite
A purely visual mix-up. peine (\pɛn\) and pépite (\pe.pit\) 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 23150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peine is recorded at frequency rank #483, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛn\. pépite is at rank #22,667, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.pit\.
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 23150, this pair ranks #354,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peine vs pépite
Shared letters: eip. Private to "peine": n. Private to "pépite": té.
"peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pépite" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- peine ← epine · peien · peinne · penie · piene · ppeine
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peine" for "pépite" ever safe?
Frequency check: "peine" vs "pépite" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "peine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pépite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #354,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peine" and "pépite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pépite vs précité". 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 #354,088 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.