aérévsaltéréWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,820
“aéré” frequency rank
#26,954
“altéré” frequency rank
62774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aéré altéré
Definition Qui reçoit un courant d'air. Assoiffé.

Where the eye mixes aéré and altéré

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

4 ch
aéré
6 ch
altéré

Visual trap between aéré and altéré

A purely visual mix-up. aéré (\a.e.ʁe\) 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 62774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aéré is recorded at frequency rank #35,820, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.e.ʁe\. 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 62774, this pair ranks #85,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aéré vs altéré

Shared letters: aré. Private to "aéré": -. Private to "altéré": lt.

"aéré" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "altéré" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aéré" and "altéré" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.e.ʁe\ versus \al.te.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aéré" vs "altéré" - which ranks higher?
"altéré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,954 in our French list, against #35,820 for "aéré". 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 "aéré" and "altéré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aéré" 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 #85,371 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aéré" and "altéré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aéré vs avéra". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #85,371 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