Which to use
“picture” and “pitre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,908
- “picture” frequency rank
- #24,326
- “pitre” frequency rank
- 52234
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picture | pitre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Image. | Acteur populaire chargé d’amuser la foule amassée autour des tréteaux d’un charlatan, par des grimaces et de grosses plaisanteries. |
Where the eye mixes picture and pitre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. picture runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against pitre's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between picture and pitre
A purely visual mix-up. picture (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\) and pitre (\pitʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
picture is recorded at frequency rank #27,908, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚ\. pitre is at rank #24,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pitʁ\.
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 52234, this pair ranks #149,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of picture vs pitre
Shared letters: eiprt. Private to "picture": cu. Private to "pitre": -.
"picture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "pitre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "picture" and "pitre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "picture" or "pitre"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "picture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pitre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #149,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picture" and "pitre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pictural vs picture". 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 #149,150 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.