piovspisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pio” and “pis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,277
“pio” frequency rank
#3,350
“pis” frequency rank
52627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pio pis
Definition Personne pieuse. Mamelle de bête laitière (vache, brebis, etc.).

Where the eye mixes pio and pis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
pio
3 ch
pis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pio (\ˈpjɔ\) and pis (\pi\) 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 a single letter - o in “pio” becomes s in “pis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pio is recorded at frequency rank #49,277, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpjɔ\. pis is at rank #3,350, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi\.

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 52627, this pair ranks #146,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pio vs pis

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pio": o. Private to "pis": s.

"pio" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "pis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pio" and "pis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈpjɔ\ versus \pi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pio" or "pis"?
"pis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,350 in our French list, against #49,277 for "pio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "pio" and "pis". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pio" and "pis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs PMR". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list