Which to use
“pièce” and “pioche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #852
- “pièce” frequency rank
- #20,236
- “pioche” frequency rank
- 21088
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pièce | pioche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacun des éléments d’un ensemble défini. → voir pièce détachée, de toutes pièces, juger sur pièces, pièce à pièce et pièce par pièce | Outil composé d'un fer emmanché, à une pointe d'un côté et un tranchant de l'autre, ou, à deux pointes. |
Where the eye mixes pièce and pioche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pièce runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against pioche's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pièce with pioche
A purely visual mix-up. pièce (\pjɛs\) and pioche (\pjɔʃ\) 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 21088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pièce is recorded at frequency rank #852, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjɛs\. pioche is at rank #20,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pjɔʃ\.
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 21088, this pair ranks #364,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pièce vs pioche
Shared letters: ceip. Private to "pièce": è. Private to "pioche": ho.
"pièce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pioche" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pioche ← ipoche · picohe · piocche · pioceh · piochhe · piohce · poiche · ppioche
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pièce" for "pioche" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pièce" vs "pioche" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pièce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pioche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pièce" and "pioche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pichet vs pioche". 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 #364,925 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.