périméevspéripleConfusable pair

Quick tell: périmée is a adjective, périple is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“périmée” is an adjective and “périple” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,551
“périmée” frequency rank
#14,125
“périple” frequency rank
56676
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature périmée périple
Definition Féminin singulier de périmé. Navigation autour d’une mer ou autour des côtes d’un pays, d’une partie du monde, etc.

Where the eye mixes périmée and périple

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
périmée
7 ch
périple

Visual trap between périmée and périple

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: périmée is \pe.ʁi.me\ while périple is \pe.ʁipl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56676, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

périmée is recorded at frequency rank #42,551, classified as anadj, pronounced \pe.ʁi.me\. périple is at rank #14,125, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pe.ʁipl\.

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 56676, this pair ranks #119,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of périmée vs périple

Shared letters: eipré. Private to "périmée": m. Private to "périple": l.

"périmée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "périple" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "périmée" and "périple" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "périmée" is an adjective and "périple" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "périmée" vs "périple" - which ranks higher?
"périple" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,125 in our French list, against #42,551 for "périmée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "périmée" and "périple" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "périmée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "périple" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "périmée" and "périple" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périmée vs priée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #119,599 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