Which to use
“piquer” is a verb and “piqueur” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,286
- “piquer” frequency rank
- #44,097
- “piqueur” frequency rank
- 52383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piquer | piqueur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Percer, entamer légèrement avec quelque chose de pointu ; enfoncer, faire pénétrer une pointe. | Qui pique, ou qui est susceptible de piquer. |
Where the eye mixes piquer and piqueur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. piquer runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against piqueur's 7 (CVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: piquer vs piqueur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piquer is \pi.ke\ while piqueur is \pi.kœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piquer is recorded at frequency rank #8,286, classified as averb, pronounced \pi.ke\. piqueur is at rank #44,097, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pi.kœʁ\.
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 52383, this pair ranks #148,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of piquer vs piqueur
Shared letters: eipqru. Private to "piquer": -. Private to "piqueur": -.
"piquer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "piqueur" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piquer" for "piqueur" ever safe?
Which is more common, "piquer" or "piqueur"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "piquer" and "piqueur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "piquer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piqueur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,111 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piquer" and "piqueur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piqués vs piqueur". 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 #148,111 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.