périméevsprivéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,551
“périmée” frequency rank
#1,535
“privée” frequency rank
44086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature périmée privée
Definition Féminin singulier de périmé. Féminin singulier de privé.

Where the eye mixes périmée and privée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. périmée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against privée's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
périmée
6 ch
privée

Look-alike desk: périmée vs privée

A purely visual mix-up. périmée (\pe.ʁi.me\) and privée (\pʁi.ve\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44086, 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\. privée is at rank #1,535, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁi.ve\.

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 44086, this pair ranks #213,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of périmée vs privée

Shared letters: eipré. Private to "périmée": m. Private to "privée": v.

"périmée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "privée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "périmée" and "privée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ʁi.me\ versus \pʁi.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "périmée" vs "privée" - which ranks higher?
"privée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,535 in our French list, against #42,551 for "périmée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "périmée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "privée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "périmée" and "privée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périmée vs priée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #213,164 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