Which to use
“SPVM” and “spy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,173
- “SPVM” frequency rank
- #37,565
- “spy” frequency rank
- 58738
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | SPVM | spy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. | Espion. |
Where the eye mixes SPVM and spy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: SPVM vs spy
A purely visual mix-up. SPVM (\ɛs.pe.ve.ɛm\) and spy (\spaɪ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
SPVM is recorded at frequency rank #21,173, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pe.ve.ɛm\. spy is at rank #37,565, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spaɪ\.
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 58738, this pair ranks #107,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of SPVM vs spy
Shared letters: ps. Private to "SPVM": mv. Private to "spy": y.
"SPVM" · 4 letters · shape CCCC · "spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- SPVM ← psvm · spmv · sppvm · spvmm · spvvm · sspvm · svpm
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "SPVM" and "spy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "SPVM" or "spy" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "SPVM" and "spy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "SPVM" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "SPVM" and "spy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spy vs suu". 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 #107,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.