proievsproxyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,874
“proie” frequency rank
#30,753
“proxy” frequency rank
37627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature proie proxy
Definition Animal vivant qu’un animal carnassier ravit pour le manger. Serveur informatique qui a pour fonction de relayer des requêtes entre un poste client et un serveur, utilisé pour assurer les fonctions de mémoire cache, de journalisation des requêtes (« logging »), assurer la sécurité du réseau local, le filtrage et l’anonymat.

Where the eye mixes proie and proxy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
proie
5 ch
proxy

Look-alike desk: proie vs proxy

A purely visual mix-up. proie (\pʁwa\) and proxy (\pʁɔk.si\) 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 37627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

proie is recorded at frequency rank #6,874, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁwa\. proxy is at rank #30,753, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔk.si\.

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 37627, this pair ranks #261,152 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of proie vs proxy

Shared letters: opr. Private to "proie": ei. Private to "proxy": xy.

"proie" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "proxy" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • proieporie · pproie · prioe · proei · prroie · rpoie
  • proxyporxy · pproxy · proxxy · proxyy · proyx · prroxy · prxoy · rpoxy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "proie" and "proxy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁwa\ versus \pʁɔk.si\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "proie" vs "proxy" - which ranks higher?
"proie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,874 in our French list, against #30,753 for "proxy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "proie" and "proxy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "proie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "proxy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,152 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "proie" and "proxy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proud vs proxy". 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 #261,152 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