Which to use
“poivre” and “poivron” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,209
- “poivre” frequency rank
- #39,942
- “poivron” frequency rank
- 50151
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poivre | poivron |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Épice obtenue à partir des baies de quatre espèces de poivriers, plantes de la famille des Piperaceae (Pipéracées). | Plante annuelle de la famille des solanacées originaire d'Amérique du Sud et centrale, cultivée comme plante potagère pour ses fruits consommés, crus ou cuits, comme légumes. |
Where the eye mixes poivre and poivron
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poivre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against poivron's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses poivre with poivron
A purely visual mix-up. poivre (\pwavʁ\) and poivron (\pwa.vʁɔ̃\) 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 50151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poivre is recorded at frequency rank #10,209, classified as anoun, pronounced \pwavʁ\. poivron is at rank #39,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pwa.vʁɔ̃\.
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 50151, this pair ranks #164,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poivre vs poivron
Shared letters: ioprv. Private to "poivre": e. Private to "poivron": n.
"poivre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "poivron" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poivre" for "poivron" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "poivre" or "poivron" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poivre" and "poivron" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poivre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poivron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poivre" and "poivron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poivron vs potiron". 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 #164,888 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.