adoptésvsadultesConfusable pair

Which to use

“adoptés” and “adultes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,536
“adoptés” frequency rank
#2,977
“adultes” frequency rank
19513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adoptés adultes
Definition Masculin pluriel de adopté. Pluriel de adulte.

Where the eye mixes adoptés and adultes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. adoptés and adultes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
adoptés
7 ch
adultes

Why the eye confuses adoptés with adultes

A purely visual mix-up. adoptés (\a.dɔp.te\) and adultes (\a.dylt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adoptés is recorded at frequency rank #16,536, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dɔp.te\. adultes is at rank #2,977, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.dylt\.

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 19513, this pair ranks #372,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adoptés vs adultes

Shared letters: adst. Private to "adoptés": opé. Private to "adultes": elu.

"adoptés" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "adultes" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adultes ← addultes · adlutes · adulets · adulltes · adultess · adultse · adulttes · adutles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "adoptés" and "adultes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.dɔp.te\ versus \a.dylt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adoptés" or "adultes"?
"adultes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,977 in our French list, against #16,536 for "adoptés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "adoptés" and "adultes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adoptés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adultes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adoptés" and "adultes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adoptera vs adoptés". 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 #372,903 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list