portvspureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,169
“port” frequency rank
#3,216
“pure” frequency rank
4385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature port pure
Definition Havre côtier, refuge ou abri pour les bateaux les protégeant des vents et des tempêtes. La boisson en elle-même, plutôt fortement alcoolisée qui n’est pas coupé avec une autre plus légère ou sans alcool.

Where the eye mixes port and pure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
port
4 ch
pure

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. port (\pɔʁ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

port is recorded at frequency rank #1,169, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ\. 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 4385, this pair ranks #431,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of port vs pure

Shared letters: pr. Private to "port": ot. Private to "pure": eu.

"port" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portoprt · porrt · portt · potr · pport
  • pureppure · prue · purre · upre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "port" and "pure" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔʁ\ versus \pyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "port" or "pure"?
"port" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,169 in our French list, against #3,216 for "pure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "port" and "pure". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "port" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "port" and "pure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prep vs pure". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list