Which to use
“active” is a noun and “activer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,861
- “active” frequency rank
- #11,698
- “activer” frequency rank
- 14559
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | active | activer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie de l'armée qui, en temps de paix, est maintenue en état de combattre immédiatement. | Rendre plus actif, ou plus prompt. |
Where the eye mixes active and activer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: active vs activer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: active is \ak.tiv\ while activer is \ak.ti.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “active” sits inside “activer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
active is recorded at frequency rank #2,861, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.tiv\. activer is at rank #11,698, tagged as averb, pronounced \ak.ti.ve\.
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 14559, this pair ranks #396,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of active vs activer
Shared letters: aceitv. Private to "active": -. Private to "activer": r.
"active" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "activer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "active" and "activer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "active" vs "activer" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "active" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "activer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "active" and "activer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "activées vs activer". 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 #396,144 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.