Which to use
“piqués” is an adjective and “piqûre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,104
- “piqués” frequency rank
- #18,280
- “piqûre” frequency rank
- 66384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piqués | piqûre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de piqué. | Petite blessure que fait une chose ou un animal qui pique. |
Where the eye mixes piqués and piqûre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. piqués (CVCVVC) and piqûre (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses piqués with piqûre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: piqués 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 3 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 66384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piqués is recorded at frequency rank #48,104, 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 66384, this pair ranks #68,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of piqués vs piqûre
Shared letters: ipq. Private to "piqués": sué. Private to "piqûre": erû.
"piqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "piqûre" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piqués" for "piqûre" ever safe?
Frequency check: "piqués" vs "piqûre" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "piqués" and "piqûre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "piqués" 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 #68,065 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piqués" and "piqûre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqués". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #68,065 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.