Which to use
“adult” is an adjective and “adulte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,152
- “adult” frequency rank
- #3,234
- “adulte” frequency rank
- 40386
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | adult | adulte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Adulte. | Personne qui est parvenue à sa maturité psychologique et intellectuelle. |
Where the eye mixes adult and adulte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. adult runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against adulte's 6 (VCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses adult with adulte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adult is \aˈdʊlt\ while adulte is \a.dylt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “adult” sits inside “adulte”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
adult is recorded at frequency rank #37,152, classified as anadj, pronounced \aˈdʊlt\. adulte is at rank #3,234, tagged as anoun, 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 40386, this pair ranks #240,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of adult vs adulte
Shared letters: adltu. Private to "adult": -. Private to "adulte": e.
"adult" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "adulte" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "adult" for "adulte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "adult" or "adulte"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "adult" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adulte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #240,905 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "adult" and "adulte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adulé vs adult". 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 #240,905 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.