périlvspriTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,489
“péril” frequency rank
#26,137
“pri” frequency rank
33626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature péril pri
Definition Danger, risque, état où il y a quelque chose de fâcheux à craindre. Argile, glaise.

Where the eye mixes péril and pri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
péril
3 ch
pri

Look-alike desk: péril vs pri

A purely visual mix-up. péril (\pe.ʁil\) and pri (\ˈpriː\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

péril is recorded at frequency rank #7,489, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.ʁil\. pri is at rank #26,137, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpriː\.

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 33626, this pair ranks #289,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of péril vs pri

Shared letters: ipr. Private to "péril": . Private to "pri": -.

"péril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "péril" and "pri" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ʁil\ versus \ˈpriː\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "péril" or "pri"?
"péril" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,489 in our French list, against #26,137 for "pri". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "péril" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "péril" and "pri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs pri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #289,388 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