ProstvsprovostConfusable pair

Quick tell: Prost is a name, provost is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Prost” is a name and “provost” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,843
“Prost” frequency rank
#41,468
“provost” frequency rank
75311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Prost provost
Definition Nom de famille. Variante de prevost.

Letter map: Prost vs provost

Shared letters muted; letters that set Prost and provost apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

5 ch
Prost
7 ch
provost

Grammar separator: Prost vs provost

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Prost is aname and provostanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Prost is recorded at frequency rank #33,843, classified as aname, pronounced \pʁɔst\. provost is at rank #41,468, tagged as anoun.

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 75311, this pair ranks #34,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Prost vs provost

Shared letters: oprst. Private to "Prost": -. Private to "provost": v.

"Prost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "provost" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Prostpprost · prosst · prostt · prrost · prsot · rpost
  • provostporvost · pprovost · proovst · provosst · provostt · provots · provsot · provvost

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Prost" for "provost" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Prost" is a name and "provost" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Prost" vs "provost" - which ranks higher?
"Prost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,843 in our French list, against #41,468 for "provost". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "Prost" and "provost". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Prost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Prost" and "provost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provoc vs provost". 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 #34,462 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