Which to use
“perceuse” is a noun and “poreuse” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,175
- “perceuse” frequency rank
- #49,287
- “poreuse” frequency rank
- 80462
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perceuse | poreuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outil permettant de percer, de faire des trous, généralement à l’aide d’un foret rotatif. | Féminin singulier de poreux. |
Where the eye mixes perceuse and poreuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between perceuse and poreuse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perceuse is \pɛʁ.søz\ while poreuse is \pɔ.ʁøz\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perceuse is recorded at frequency rank #31,175, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.søz\. poreuse is at rank #49,287, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.ʁøz\.
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 80462, this pair ranks #20,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of perceuse vs poreuse
Shared letters: eprsu. Private to "perceuse": c. Private to "poreuse": o.
"perceuse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "poreuse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "perceuse" for "poreuse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "perceuse" or "poreuse" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "perceuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poreuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perceuse" and "poreuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poreuse vs poreux". 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 #20,850 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.