per vs PhD, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#5,775
“per” frequency rank: #17,608
“PhD” frequency rank: 23383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	per	PhD
Definition	por	pessoa que possui o título de doutorado; doutor/doutora

Letter map: per vs PhD

Shared letters muted; letters that set per and PhD apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

per

3 ch

PhD

Grammar separator: per vs PhD

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: per is apreposition and PhDanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

per is recorded at frequency rank #5,775, classified as aprep. PhD is at rank #17,608, 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 23383, this pair ranks #46,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of per vs PhD

Shared letters: p. Private to "per": er. Private to "PhD": dh.

"per" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "PhD" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "per" for "PhD" ever safe?

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

Which is more common, "per" or "PhD"?

"per" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,775 in our Portuguese list, against #17,608 for "PhD". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "per" and "PhD".

Full dictionary entry for "per" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "PhD" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #46,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"per" and "PhD" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PhD vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #46,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.