Which to use
“prière” and “priest” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,789
- “prière” frequency rank
- #31,190
- “priest” frequency rank
- 34979
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prière | priest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Paroles par lesquelles on s’adresse à Dieu, ou à des intercesseurs. | Prêtre. |
Where the eye mixes prière and priest
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. prière (CCVVCV) and priest (CCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: prière vs priest
A purely visual mix-up. prière (\pʁi.jɛʁ\) and priest (\pɻiːst\) 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 34979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prière is recorded at frequency rank #3,789, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.jɛʁ\. priest is at rank #31,190, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɻiːst\.
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 34979, this pair ranks #280,025 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of prière vs priest
Shared letters: eipr. Private to "prière": è. Private to "priest": st.
"prière" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "priest" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- priest ← pirest · ppriest · preist · priesst · priestt · priets · priset · prriest
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "prière" and "priest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "prière" or "priest" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "prière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "priest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,025 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prière" and "priest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs priest". 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 #280,025 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.