périvspeurTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,649
“péri” frequency rank
#467
“peur” frequency rank
13116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature péri peur
Definition Génie féminin qui, dans les contes persans, joue un rôle analogue à celui des fées dans les contes occidentaux. Crainte, frayeur, émotion pénible produite par l’idée ou la vue d’un danger.

Where the eye mixes péri and peur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. péri (CVCV) and peur (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
péri
4 ch
peur

Look-alike desk: péri vs peur

A purely visual mix-up. péri (\pe.ʁi\) and peur (\pœʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

péri is recorded at frequency rank #12,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.ʁi\. peur is at rank #467, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pœʁ\.

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 13116, this pair ranks #402,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of péri vs peur

Shared letters: pr. Private to "péri": . Private to "peur": eu.

"péri" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "peur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peurepur · peru · peurr · ppeur

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "péri" and "peur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ʁi\ versus \pœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "péri" or "peur"?
"peur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #467 in our French list, against #12,649 for "péri". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "péri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #402,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "péri" and "peur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs péri". 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 #402,364 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