Which to use
“peut” and “pieux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #70
- “peut” frequency rank
- #13,229
- “pieux” frequency rank
- 13299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peut | pieux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sale, mauvais, méchant. | Qui a de la piété ; qui est attaché aux croyances, aux devoirs et aux pratiques de la religion. |
Where the eye mixes peut and pieux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peut runs 4 letters (CVVC) against pieux's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses peut with pieux
A purely visual mix-up. peut (\pøt\) and pieux (\pjø\) 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 13299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peut is recorded at frequency rank #70, classified as anadj, pronounced \pøt\. pieux is at rank #13,229, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pjø\.
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 13299, this pair ranks #401,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of peut vs pieux
Shared letters: epu. Private to "peut": t. Private to "pieux": ix.
"peut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "pieux" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "peut" and "pieux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "peut" vs "pieux" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "peut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pieux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,578 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peut" and "pieux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieux vs piou". 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 #401,578 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.