pètesvspiétéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,737
“pètes” frequency rank
#19,942
“piété” frequency rank
68679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pètes piété
Definition Pluriel de pète. Dévotion, attachement aux devoirs et aux pratiques de la religion.

Where the eye mixes pètes and piété

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pètes (CVCVC) and piété (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pètes
5 ch
piété

Look-alike desk: pètes vs piété

A purely visual mix-up. pètes (\pɛt\) and piété (\pje.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pètes is recorded at frequency rank #48,737, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛt\. piété is at rank #19,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pje.te\.

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 68679, this pair ranks #58,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pètes vs piété

Shared letters: pt. Private to "pètes": esè. Private to "piété": ié.

"pètes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "piété" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pètes" for "piété" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛt\ versus \pje.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pètes" vs "piété" - which ranks higher?
"piété" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,942 in our French list, against #48,737 for "pètes". 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 "pètes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piété" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,134 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pètes" and "piété" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pètes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,134 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