pelervspérirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48,708
“peler” frequency rank
#27,204
“périr” frequency rank
75912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peler périr
Definition Dépouiller du poil. Prendre fin ; cesser d’être.

Where the eye mixes peler and périr

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. peler and périr follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
peler
5 ch
périr

Visual trap between peler and périr

A purely visual mix-up. peler (\pə.le\) and périr (\pe.ʁiʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peler is recorded at frequency rank #48,708, classified as averb, pronounced \pə.le\. périr is at rank #27,204, tagged as averb, pronounced \pe.ʁiʁ\.

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 75912, this pair ranks #32,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peler vs périr

Shared letters: pr. Private to "peler": el. Private to "périr": ié.

"peler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "périr" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peler ← epler · peelr · pelerr · peller · pleer · ppeler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peler" for "périr" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pə.le\ versus \pe.ʁiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peler" or "périr"?
"périr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,204 in our French list, against #48,708 for "peler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "périr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peler" and "périr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs peler". 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 #32,660 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