entervsentreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“enter” and “entre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,632
“enter” frequency rank
#36,126
“entre” frequency rank
37758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enter entre
Definition To go or come into an enclosed or partially enclosed space. Archaic spelling of enter.

Letter map: enter vs entre

Shared letters muted; letters that set enter and entre apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. enter (VCCVC) and entre (VCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
enter
5 ch
entre

Spelling & dictionary notes on enter vs entre

enter and entre are indexed as a confusable English 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 only by swapping two adjacent letters (er ↔ re) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enter is recorded at frequency rank #1,632, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɛntə(ɹ)/. entre is at rank #36,126, tagged as averb.

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 37758, this pair ranks #291,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enter vs entre

Shared letters: enrt. Private to "enter": -. Private to "entre": -.

"enter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "entre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enter ← enetr · ennter · enterr · entter · etner · neter
  • entre ← enntre · enrte · entrre · enttre · etnre · netre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enter" and "entre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (er ↔ re) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "enter" vs "entre" - which ranks higher?
"enter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,632 in our English list, against #36,126 for "entre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "enter" vs "entre" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #291,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enter" and "entre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "engle vs entre". 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 #291,757 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list