piqûre vs pure, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18,280
“piqûre” frequency rank: #3,216
“pure” frequency rank: 21496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	piqûre	pure
Definition	Petite blessure que fait une chose ou un animal qui pique.	La boisson en elle-même, plutôt fortement alcoolisée qui n’est pas coupé avec une autre plus légère ou sans alcool.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set piqûre and pure apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

piqûre

4 ch

pure

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. piqûre (\pi.kyʁ\) and pure (\pyʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piqûre is recorded at frequency rank #18,280, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.kyʁ\. pure is at rank #3,216, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pyʁ\.

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 21496, this pair ranks #362,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of piqûre vs pure

Shared letters: epr. Private to "piqûre": iqû. Private to "pure": u.

"piqûre" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "pure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

pure ← ppure · prue · purre · upre

Frequency comparison

piqûre#18,280

pure#3,216

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piqûre" and "pure" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\pi.kyʁ\ versus \pyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "piqûre" or "pure"?

"pure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,216 in our French list, against #18,280 for "piqûre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering piqûre vs pure

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “piqûre” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable