Which to use
“pieux” and “poreux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,229
- “pieux” frequency rank
- #41,966
- “poreux” frequency rank
- 55195
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pieux | poreux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a de la piété ; qui est attaché aux croyances, aux devoirs et aux pratiques de la religion. | Qui a des pores. |
Where the eye mixes pieux and poreux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pieux runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against poreux's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pieux with poreux
A purely visual mix-up. pieux (\pjø\) and poreux (\pɔ.ʁø\) 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 55195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pieux is recorded at frequency rank #13,229, classified as anadj, pronounced \pjø\. poreux is at rank #41,966, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.ʁø\.
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 55195, this pair ranks #129,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pieux vs poreux
Shared letters: epux. Private to "pieux": i. Private to "poreux": or.
"pieux" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "poreux" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pieux" and "poreux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pieux" or "poreux" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pieux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poreux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #129,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pieux" and "poreux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poreuse vs poreux". 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 #129,035 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.