Which to use
“perce” and “pète” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,016
- “perce” frequency rank
- #10,769
- “pète” frequency rank
- 28785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perce | pète |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outil pour percer. | Joint. |
Where the eye mixes perce and pète
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses perce with pète
A purely visual mix-up. perce (\pɛʁs\) and pète (\pɛt\) 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 28785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perce is recorded at frequency rank #18,016, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁs\. pète is at rank #10,769, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛt\.
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 28785, this pair ranks #320,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of perce vs pète
Shared letters: ep. Private to "perce": cr. Private to "pète": tè.
"perce" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pète" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- perce ← eprce · pecre · percce · perec · perrce · pperce · prece
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "perce" and "pète" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "perce" vs "pète" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "perce" and "pète" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "perce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pète" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #320,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perce" and "pète" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perce vs perfs". 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 #320,727 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.