agitervsAlterConfusable pair

Quick tell: agiter is a verb, Alter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agiter” is a verb and “Alter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,199
“agiter” frequency rank
#19,203
“Alter” frequency rank
38402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agiter Alter
Definition Secouer vivement en tout sens. Âge.

Where the eye mixes agiter and Alter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
agiter
5 ch
Alter

Why the eye confuses agiter with Alter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agiter is \a.ʒi.te\ while Alter is \ˈal.tɐ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agiter is recorded at frequency rank #19,199, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʒi.te\. Alter is at rank #19,203, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈal.tɐ\.

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 38402, this pair ranks #255,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agiter vs Alter

Shared letters: aert. Private to "agiter": gi. Private to "Alter": l.

"agiter" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "Alter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agiteraggiter · agietr · agiterr · agitre · agitter · agtier · aigter · gaiter
  • Alteraletr · allter · alterr · altre · altter · atler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agiter" and "Alter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agiter" is a verb and "Alter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agiter" or "Alter"?
"agiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,199 in our French list, against #19,203 for "Alter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Alter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agiter" and "Alter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alter vs astor". 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 #255,502 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