adultèrevsaltéréTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,079
“adultère” frequency rank
#26,954
“altéré” frequency rank
42033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adultère altéré
Definition Qui viole le serment de fidélité conjugale. Assoiffé.

Where the eye mixes adultère and altéré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. adultère runs 8 letters (VCVCCVCV) against altéré's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
adultère
6 ch
altéré

Look-alike desk: adultère vs altéré

A purely visual mix-up. adultère (\a.dyl.tɛʁ\) and altéré (\al.te.ʁe\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adultère is recorded at frequency rank #15,079, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dyl.tɛʁ\. altéré is at rank #26,954, tagged as anadj, pronounced \al.te.ʁe\.

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 42033, this pair ranks #228,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of adultère vs altéré

Shared letters: alrt. Private to "adultère": deuè. Private to "altéré": é.

"adultère" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "altéré" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adultère" and "altéré" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.dyl.tɛʁ\ versus \al.te.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "adultère" or "altéré"?
"adultère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,079 in our French list, against #26,954 for "altéré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adultère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altéré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adultère" and "altéré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actée vs altéré". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #228,709 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