perroquetvsperruqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,109
“perroquet” frequency rank
#15,962
“perruque” frequency rank
37071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perroquet perruque
Definition Nom normalisé donné à deux genres d'oiseaux de la famille des Psittacidés et de l'ordre des psittaciformes, comprenant douze espèces habitant les régions paléotropicales, au plumage souvent coloré, au bec crochu, fortement articulé et puissant, de taille assez robuste, dont l'intelligence dépasse en moyenne celle des autres membres de leur ordre, hautement sociables, et dont les aptitudes supérieures à la communication intragroupe permettent à plusieurs espèces d'imiter la voix humaine (genres Poicephalus et Psittacus). Coiffure de faux cheveux.

Where the eye mixes perroquet and perruque

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
perroquet
8 ch
perruque

Why the eye confuses perroquet with perruque

A purely visual mix-up. perroquet (\pɛ.ʁɔ.kɛ\) and perruque (\pɛ.ʁyk\) 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 37071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perroquet is recorded at frequency rank #21,109, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.ʁɔ.kɛ\. perruque is at rank #15,962, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛ.ʁyk\.

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 37071, this pair ranks #265,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perroquet vs perruque

Shared letters: epqru. Private to "perroquet": ot. Private to "perruque": -.

"perroquet" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "perruque" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perroqueteprroquet · peroquet · perorquet · perroqeut · perroqquet · perroquett · perroqute · perrouqet
  • perruqueeprruque · perrquue · perruqeu · perruqque · perruuqe · peruque · perurque · pperruque

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perroquet" and "perruque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛ.ʁɔ.kɛ\ versus \pɛ.ʁyk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "perroquet" or "perruque"?
"perruque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,962 in our French list, against #21,109 for "perroquet". 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 "perroquet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perruque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,094 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perroquet" and "perruque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perruche vs perruque". 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 #265,094 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