péremptionvspréemptionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,201
“péremption” frequency rank
#40,938
“préemption” frequency rank
72139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature péremption préemption
Definition Sorte de prescription qui détruit et annule une procédure civile, lorsqu’il y a eu discontinuité de poursuites pendant un certain temps limité. Fait de passer avant les autres, en priorité.

Where the eye mixes péremption and préemption

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. péremption (CVCVCCCVVC) and préemption (CCVVCCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
péremption
10 ch
préemption

Why the eye confuses péremption with préemption

A purely visual mix-up. péremption (\pe.ʁɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\) and préemption (\pʁe.ɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ér ↔ ré) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

péremption is recorded at frequency rank #31,201, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.ʁɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\. préemption is at rank #40,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.ɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\.

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 72139, this pair ranks #45,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of péremption vs préemption

Shared letters: eimnoprté. Private to "péremption": -. Private to "préemption": -.

"péremption" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCCVVC  ·  "préemption" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "péremption" and "préemption" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ʁɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\ versus \pʁe.ɑ̃p.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "péremption" or "préemption" show up more?
"péremption" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,201 in our French list, against #40,938 for "préemption". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "péremption" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "préemption" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "péremption" and "préemption" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "préemption vs présomption". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #45,064 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