Which to use
“peur” and “pus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #467
- “peur” frequency rank
- #13,881
- “pus” frequency rank
- 14348
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peur | pus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Crainte, frayeur, émotion pénible produite par l’idée ou la vue d’un danger. | Matière liquide, épaisse, blanchâtre, qui se forme dans les abcès, qui sort des plaies et des ulcères. |
Where the eye mixes peur and pus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between peur and pus
A purely visual mix-up. peur (\pœʁ\) and pus (\py\) 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 14348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peur is recorded at frequency rank #467, classified as anoun, pronounced \pœʁ\. pus is at rank #13,881, tagged as anoun, pronounced \py\.
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 14348, this pair ranks #397,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peur vs pus
Shared letters: pu. Private to "peur": er. Private to "pus": s.
"peur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- peur ← epur · peru · peurr · ppeur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peur" for "pus" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "peur" or "pus" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "peur" and "pus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "peur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peur" and "pus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pus". 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 #397,079 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.