pilorivsprioriTell them apart

Quick tell: pilori is a noun, priori is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pilori” is a noun and “priori” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,972
“pilori” frequency rank
#5,390
“priori” frequency rank
43362
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilori priori
Definition Roue, poteau ou pilier sur lequel on attachait un condamné pour l’exposer en public au mépris de tous. Datif singulier de prior.

Letter map: pilori vs priori

Shared letters muted; letters that set pilori and priori apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. pilori (CVCVCV) and priori (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
pilori
6 ch
priori

Role in the sentence - pilori and priori

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pilori is anoun and priorianadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilori is recorded at frequency rank #37,972, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.lɔ.ʁi\. priori is at rank #5,390, tagged as anadj.

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 43362, this pair ranks #218,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pilori vs priori

Shared letters: iopr. Private to "pilori": l. Private to "priori": -.

"pilori" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "priori" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piloriiplori · pillori · piloir · pilorri · pilroi · piolri · pliori · ppilori
  • prioripirori · ppriori · prioir · priorri · priroi · proiri · prriori · rpiori

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pilori" and "priori" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pilori" is a noun and "priori" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pilori" or "priori"?
"priori" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,390 in our French list, against #37,972 for "pilori". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pilori" and "priori". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilori" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "priori" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,615 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilori" and "priori" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilar vs pilori". 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 #218,615 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list