per vs Peru, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“per” is a preposition and “Peru” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,775
“per” frequency rank: #2,439
“Peru” frequency rank: 8214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	per	Peru
Definition	por	Peru

Letter map: per vs Peru

Shared letters muted; letters that set per and Peru apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch

per

4 ch

Peru

Grammar separator: per vs Peru

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: per is apreposition and Peruanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “per” sits inside “Peru”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #5,775, classified as aprep. Peru is at rank #2,439, tagged as anoun, pronounced /peˈruː/.

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 8214, this pair ranks #65,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of per vs Peru

Shared letters: epr. Private to "per": -. Private to "Peru": u.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Peru" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Peru ← epru · perru · peur · pperu · preu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "per" and "Peru" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "per" is a preposition and "Peru" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "per" or "Peru" show up more?

"Peru" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,439 in our Portuguese list, against #5,775 for "per". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "per" vs "Peru" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Peru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #65,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"per" and "Peru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "per vs pix". 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 #65,653 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.