Which to use
“pieu” and “preux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,470
- “pieu” frequency rank
- #39,466
- “preux” frequency rank
- 65936
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pieu | preux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce de bois qui est pointue par un des bouts et qu’on emploie à divers usages. | Chevalier. |
Where the eye mixes pieu and preux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pieu runs 4 letters (CVVV) against preux's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pieu and preux
A purely visual mix-up. pieu (\pjø\) and preux (\pʁø\) 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 65936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pieu is recorded at frequency rank #26,470, classified as anoun, pronounced \pjø\. preux is at rank #39,466, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁø\.
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 65936, this pair ranks #70,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pieu vs preux
Shared letters: epu. Private to "pieu": i. Private to "preux": rx.
"pieu" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "preux" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pieu" and "preux" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pieu" vs "preux" - 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 "pieu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "preux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pieu" and "preux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs preux". 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 #70,093 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.