adulévsadultWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,415
“adulé” frequency rank
#37,152
“adult” frequency rank
82567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adulé adult
Definition Qualifie une personne ou une entité flattée avec excès. Adulte.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set adulé and adult apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
adulé
5 ch
adult

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. adulé (\a.dy.le\) and adult (\aˈdʊlt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - é in “adulé” becomes t in “adult”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adulé is recorded at frequency rank #45,415, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dy.le\. adult is at rank #37,152, tagged as anadj, pronounced \aˈdʊlt\.

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 82567, this pair ranks #16,476 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of adulé vs adult

Shared letters: adlu. Private to "adulé": é. Private to "adult": t.

"adulé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "adult" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adultaddult · adlut · adullt · adultt · adutl · audlt · dault

Frequency comparison

adulé#45,415
adult#37,152

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adulé" and "adult" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.dy.le\ versus \aˈdʊlt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adulé" or "adult"?
"adult" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,152 in our French list, against #45,415 for "adulé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering adulé vs adult

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “adulé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list