Which to use
“pictures” and “piqûres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,715
- “pictures” frequency rank
- #21,112
- “piqûres” frequency rank
- 45827
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pictures | piqûres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de picture. | Pluriel de piqûre. |
Where the eye mixes pictures and piqûres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pictures runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against piqûres's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pictures with piqûres
A purely visual mix-up. pictures (\ˈpɪk.tʃɚz\) and piqûres (\pi.kyʁ\) 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 45827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pictures is recorded at frequency rank #24,715, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɪk.tʃɚz\. piqûres is at rank #21,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.kyʁ\.
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 45827, this pair ranks #199,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pictures vs piqûres
Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "pictures": ctu. Private to "piqûres": qû.
"pictures" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "piqûres" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pictures ← ipctures · pcitures · picctures · pictrues · picttures · pictuers · picturess · picturres
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pictures" for "piqûres" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pictures" or "piqûres"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pictures" and "piqûres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pictures" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqûres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pictures" and "piqûres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqûres". 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 #199,721 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.