percéevsPiréeConfusable pair

Quick tell: percée is a noun, Pirée is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“percée” is a noun and “Pirée” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,826
“percée” frequency rank
#41,453
“Pirée” frequency rank
53279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percée Pirée
Definition Ouverture pratiquée soit pour faire un chemin, soit pour se procurer un point de vue. Variante de Le Pirée.

Where the eye mixes percée and Pirée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
percée
5 ch
Pirée

Visual trap between percée and Pirée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: percée is \pɛʁ.se\ while Pirée is \pi.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percée is recorded at frequency rank #11,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.se\. Pirée is at rank #41,453, tagged as aname, pronounced \pi.ʁe\.

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 53279, this pair ranks #141,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of percée vs Pirée

Shared letters: epré. Private to "percée": c. Private to "Pirée": i.

"percée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Pirée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percée" and "Pirée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "percée" is a noun and "Pirée" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "percée" or "Pirée" show up more?
"percée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,826 in our French list, against #41,453 for "Pirée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "percée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pirée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percée" and "Pirée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pirée vs prep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #141,857 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