Which to use
“piquée” is an adjective and “piqûre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,472
- “piquée” frequency rank
- #18,280
- “piqûre” frequency rank
- 44752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piquée | piqûre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de piqué. | Petite blessure que fait une chose ou un animal qui pique. |
Where the eye mixes piquée and piqûre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. piquée (CVCVVV) and piqûre (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between piquée and piqûre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piquée is \pi.ke\ while piqûre is \pi.kyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piquée is recorded at frequency rank #26,472, classified as anadj, pronounced \pi.ke\. piqûre is at rank #18,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.kyʁ\.
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 44752, this pair ranks #208,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of piquée vs piqûre
Shared letters: eipq. Private to "piquée": ué. Private to "piqûre": rû.
"piquée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV · "piqûre" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piquée" for "piqûre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "piquée" or "piqûre"?
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 "piquée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqûre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piquée" and "piqûre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillée vs piquée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #208,098 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.