Which to use
“piqués” and “pires” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,104
- “piqués” frequency rank
- #4,700
- “pires” frequency rank
- 52804
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piqués | pires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de piqué. | Pluriel de pire. |
Where the eye mixes piqués and pires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: piqués vs pires
A purely visual mix-up. piqués (\pi.ke\) and pires (\piʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52804, 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\. pires is at rank #4,700, tagged as anadj, pronounced \piʁ\.
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 52804, this pair ranks #145,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of piqués vs pires
Shared letters: ips. Private to "piqués": qué. Private to "pires": er.
"piqués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "pires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pires ← ipres · piers · piress · pirres · ppires
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "piqués" and "pires" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "piqués" vs "pires" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "piqués" and "pires" 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 "pires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piqués" and "pires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pieuses vs piqués". 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 #145,174 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.