prêtresvspreuvesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,015
“prêtres” frequency rank
#2,540
“preuves” frequency rank
8555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prêtres preuves
Definition Pluriel de prêtre. Pluriel de preuve.

Where the eye mixes prêtres and preuves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
prêtres
7 ch
preuves

Look-alike desk: prêtres vs preuves

A purely visual mix-up. prêtres (\pʁɛtʁ\) and preuves (\pʁœv\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prêtres is recorded at frequency rank #6,015, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛtʁ\. preuves is at rank #2,540, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁœv\.

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 8555, this pair ranks #419,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prêtres vs preuves

Shared letters: eprs. Private to "prêtres": . Private to "preuves": uv.

"prêtres" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "preuves" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preuvesperuves · ppreuves · preuevs · preuvess · preuvse · preuvves · prevues · prreuves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prêtres" for "preuves" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɛtʁ\ versus \pʁœv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "prêtres" vs "preuves" - which ranks higher?
"preuves" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,540 in our French list, against #6,015 for "prêtres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prêtres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "preuves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prêtres" and "preuves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pètes vs prêtres". 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 #419,628 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list