provocvsprovostWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,476
“provoc” frequency rank
#41,468
“provost” frequency rank
80944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoc provost
Definition Provocation. Variante de prevost.

Letter map: provoc vs provost

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

6 ch
provoc
7 ch
provost

Corpus notes: provoc and provost

provoc and provost are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provoc is recorded at frequency rank #39,476, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.vɔk\. 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 80944, this pair ranks #19,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of provoc vs provost

Shared letters: oprv. Private to "provoc": c. Private to "provost": st.

"provoc" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "provost" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • provocporvoc · pprovoc · proovc · provco · provocc · provvoc · prrovoc · prvooc
  • provostporvost · pprovost · proovst · provosst · provostt · provots · provsot · provvost

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "provoc" and "provost" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "provoc" vs "provost" - which ranks higher?
"provoc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,476 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "provoc" and "provost".

  • Full dictionary entry for "provoc" 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 #19,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoc" and "provost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "proof vs provoc". 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 #19,800 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