Which to use
“pit” is an adjective and “puits” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,076
- “pit” frequency rank
- #5,282
- “puits” frequency rank
- 30358
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pit | puits |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Parfait, excellent. | Trou qui s’enfonce dans le sol pour tirer de l’eau, du pétrole, du gaz naturel, ou tout autre fluide qui se trouve en profondeur. |
Where the eye mixes pit and puits
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pit and puits
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pit is \pit\ while puits is \pɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pit is recorded at frequency rank #25,076, classified as anadj, pronounced \pit\. puits is at rank #5,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɥi\.
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 30358, this pair ranks #310,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pit vs puits
Shared letters: ipt. Private to "pit": -. Private to "puits": su.
"pit" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "puits" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- puits ← piuts · ppuits · puist · puitss · puitts · putis · upits
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pit" for "puits" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pit" vs "puits" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,870 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pit" and "puits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pit". 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 #310,870 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.