périmésvspersesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,990
“périmés” frequency rank
#20,814
“perses” frequency rank
62804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature périmés perses
Definition Masculin pluriel de périmé. Pluriel de perse.

Where the eye mixes périmés and perses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. périmés runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against perses's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
périmés
6 ch
perses

Why the eye confuses périmés with perses

A purely visual mix-up. périmés (\pe.ʁi.me\) and perses (\pɛʁs\) 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 62804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

périmés is recorded at frequency rank #41,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \pe.ʁi.me\. perses is at rank #20,814, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁs\.

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 62804, this pair ranks #85,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of périmés vs perses

Shared letters: prs. Private to "périmés": imé. Private to "perses": e.

"périmés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "perses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perses ← eprses · peress · perrses · persess · persses · pesres · pperses · preses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "périmés" for "perses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pe.ʁi.me\ versus \pɛʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "périmés" vs "perses" - which ranks higher?
"perses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,814 in our French list, against #41,990 for "périmés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "périmés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "périmés" and "perses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périmés vs primée". 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 #85,216 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