Which to use
“pire” is an adjective and “priée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #659
- “pire” frequency rank
- #49,295
- “priée” frequency rank
- 49954
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pire | priée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Comparatif de mauvais. Plus mauvais, plus défectueux, plus nuisible. | Participe passé féminin singulier de prier. |
Where the eye mixes pire and priée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses pire with priée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pire is \piʁ\ while priée is \pʁi.je\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pire is recorded at frequency rank #659, classified as anadj, pronounced \piʁ\. priée is at rank #49,295, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁi.je\.
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 49954, this pair ranks #166,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pire vs priée
Shared letters: eipr. Private to "pire": -. Private to "priée": é.
"pire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "priée" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pire ← ipre · pirre · ppire · prie
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pire" and "priée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pire" or "priée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pire" and "priée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "priée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pire" and "priée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs priée". 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 #166,521 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.