Which to use
“pékin” and “péril” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,878
- “pékin” frequency rank
- #7,489
- “péril” frequency rank
- 14367
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pékin | péril |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étoffe de soie rayée où des bandes brillantes alternent avec des bandes mates. | Danger, risque, état où il y a quelque chose de fâcheux à craindre. |
Where the eye mixes pékin and péril
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pékin and péril follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pékin with péril
A purely visual mix-up. pékin (\pe.kɛ̃\) and péril (\pe.ʁil\) 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 14367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pékin is recorded at frequency rank #6,878, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.kɛ̃\. péril is at rank #7,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.ʁil\.
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 14367, this pair ranks #396,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pékin vs péril
Shared letters: ipé. Private to "pékin": kn. Private to "péril": lr.
"pékin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "péril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pékin" and "péril" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pékin" vs "péril" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pékin" and "péril" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pékin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "péril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pékin" and "péril" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "péril vs purin". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #396,992 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.