pubvspubisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,638
“pub” frequency rank
#45,256
“pubis” frequency rank
47894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pub pubis
Definition Message publicitaire. Os situé à la partie antérieure et supérieure du bassin, l'un des trois os pelviens (soudés pour former l’os coxal).

Where the eye mixes pub and pubis

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

3 ch
pub
5 ch
pubis

Visual trap between pub and pubis

A purely visual mix-up. pub (\pyb\) and pubis (\py.bis\) 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 extra letter(s) - “pub” sits inside “pubis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pub is recorded at frequency rank #2,638, classified as anoun, pronounced \pyb\. pubis is at rank #45,256, tagged as anoun, pronounced \py.bis\.

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 47894, this pair ranks #183,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pub vs pubis

Shared letters: bpu. Private to "pub": -. Private to "pubis": is.

"pub" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "pubis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pubispbuis · ppubis · pubbis · pubiss · pubsi · puibs · upbis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pub" and "pubis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pyb\ versus \py.bis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pub" vs "pubis" - which ranks higher?
"pub" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,638 in our French list, against #45,256 for "pubis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pub" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pubis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,310 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pub" and "pubis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pubis vs purin". 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 #183,310 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