persuadevspersuaderWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,179
“persuade” frequency rank
#15,715
“persuader” frequency rank
46894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature persuade persuader
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de persuader. Amener quelqu’un à croire ou à vouloir quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes persuade and persuader

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. persuade runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against persuader's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
persuade
9 ch
persuader

Visual trap between persuade and persuader

A purely visual mix-up. persuade (\pɛʁ.sɥad\) and persuader (\pɛʁ.sɥa.de\) 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 extra letter(s) - “persuade” sits inside “persuader”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

persuade is recorded at frequency rank #31,179, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɥad\. persuader is at rank #15,715, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɥa.de\.

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 46894, this pair ranks #191,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of persuade vs persuader

Shared letters: adeprsu. Private to "persuade": -. Private to "persuader": -.

"persuade" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "persuader" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persuade ← eprsuade · perrsuade · persaude · perssuade · persuadde · persuaed · persudae · perusade
  • persuader ← eprsuader · perrsuader · persauder · perssuader · persuadder · persuaderr · persuadre · persuaedr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "persuade" and "persuader" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.sɥad\ versus \pɛʁ.sɥa.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "persuade" or "persuader"?
"persuader" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,715 in our French list, against #31,179 for "persuade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "persuade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "persuader" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,207 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "persuade" and "persuader" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persane vs persuade". 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 #191,207 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