agentevsattenteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,396
“agente” frequency rank
#2,461
“attente” frequency rank
36857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agente attente
Definition Celle qui est chargée d’une fonction, d’une mission, soit par un gouvernement soit par une administration, soit par un ou plusieurs particuliers. État de la personne qui attend, ou temps pendant lequel on attend.

Where the eye mixes agente and attente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agente runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against attente's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
agente
7 ch
attente

Why the eye confuses agente with attente

A purely visual mix-up. agente (\a.ʒɑ̃t\) and attente (\a.tɑ̃t\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agente is recorded at frequency rank #34,396, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʒɑ̃t\. attente is at rank #2,461, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tɑ̃t\.

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 36857, this pair ranks #266,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agente vs attente

Shared letters: aent. Private to "agente": g. Private to "attente": -.

"agente" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "attente" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agente ← aegnte · agenet · agennte · agentte · agetne · aggente · agnete · gaente
  • attente ← atente · atetnte · attenet · attennte · attentte · attetne · attnete · tatente

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agente" for "attente" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʒɑ̃t\ versus \a.tɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "agente" or "attente"?
"attente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,461 in our French list, against #34,396 for "agente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "agente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "attente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agente" and "attente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agente vs argents". 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 #266,650 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