procédurevsprocureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,968
“procédure” frequency rank
#11,461
“procure” frequency rank
13429
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature procédure procure
Definition Manière de procéder, démarche, méthode, marche à suivre pour obtenir un résultat. Office du procureur dans certaines congrégations ou communautés.

Where the eye mixes procédure and procure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
procédure
7 ch
procure

Look-alike desk: procédure vs procure

A purely visual mix-up. procédure (\pʁɔ.se.dyʁ\) and procure (\pʁɔ.kyʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

procédure is recorded at frequency rank #1,968, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.se.dyʁ\. procure is at rank #11,461, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.kyʁ\.

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 13429, this pair ranks #401,074 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of procédure vs procure

Shared letters: ceopru. Private to "procédure": . Private to "procure": -.

"procédure" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV  ·  "procure" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • procureporcure · pprocure · prcoure · proccure · procrue · procuer · proucre · prrocure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "procédure" and "procure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.se.dyʁ\ versus \pʁɔ.kyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "procédure" or "procure" show up more?
"procédure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,968 in our French list, against #11,461 for "procure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "procédure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "procure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,074 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "procédure" and "procure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "procure vs proféré". 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 #401,074 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