prièrevsprismeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,789
“prière” frequency rank
#15,970
“prisme” frequency rank
19759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prière prisme
Definition Paroles par lesquelles on s’adresse à Dieu, ou à des intercesseurs. Polyèdre ayant pour bases deux polygones égaux et parallèles, dont les côtés homologues sont unis par des parallélogrammes.

Where the eye mixes prière and prisme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. prière (CCVVCV) and prisme (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
prière
6 ch
prisme

Look-alike desk: prière vs prisme

A purely visual mix-up. prière (\pʁi.jɛʁ\) and prisme (\pʁism\) 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 19759, 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\. prisme is at rank #15,970, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁism\.

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 19759, this pair ranks #371,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prière vs prisme

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "prière": è. Private to "prisme": ms.

"prière" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "prisme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prisme ← pirsme · pprisme · primse · prisem · prismme · prissme · prrisme · prsime

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prière" for "prisme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁi.jɛʁ\ versus \pʁism\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prière" or "prisme"?
"prière" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,789 in our French list, against #15,970 for "prisme". 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 "prière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prisme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prière" and "prisme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs prisme". 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 #371,701 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