percementvspincementTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,510
“percement” frequency rank
#31,650
“pincement” frequency rank
79160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percement pincement
Definition Action de percer une chose pour y pratiquer une ouverture ; ou le résultat de cette action. Action de pincer ou résultat de cette action.

Where the eye mixes percement and pincement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. percement and pincement follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
percement
9 ch
pincement

Visual trap between percement and pincement

A purely visual mix-up. percement (\pɛʁ.sə.mɑ̃\) and pincement (\pɛ̃s.mɑ̃\) 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 79160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percement is recorded at frequency rank #47,510, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sə.mɑ̃\. pincement is at rank #31,650, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ̃s.mɑ̃\.

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 79160, this pair ranks #23,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of percement vs pincement

Shared letters: cemnpt. Private to "percement": r. Private to "pincement": i.

"percement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "pincement" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • percement ← eprcement · pecrement · perccement · perceemnt · percemennt · percementt · percemetn · percemment
  • pincement ← ipncement · picnement · pinccement · pinceemnt · pincemennt · pincementt · pincemetn · pincemment

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "percement" and "pincement" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.sə.mɑ̃\ versus \pɛ̃s.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "percement" or "pincement"?
"pincement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,650 in our French list, against #47,510 for "percement". 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 "percement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pincement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,966 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percement" and "pincement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parement vs percement". 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 #23,966 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