alegrevsaltéréWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,235
“alegre” frequency rank
#26,954
“altéré” frequency rank
63189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alegre altéré
Definition Gai, joyeux. Assoiffé.

Where the eye mixes alegre and altéré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. alegre (VCVCCV) and altéré (VCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
alegre
6 ch
altéré

Visual trap between alegre and altéré

A purely visual mix-up. alegre ([aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alegre is recorded at frequency rank #36,235, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe]. 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 63189, this pair ranks #83,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alegre vs altéré

Shared letters: alr. Private to "alegre": eg. Private to "altéré": té.

"alegre" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "altéré" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alegre ← aelgre · aleger · aleggre · alegrre · alerge · algere · allegre · laegre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alegre" for "altéré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe] versus \al.te.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alegre" or "altéré"?
"altéré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,954 in our French list, against #36,235 for "alegre". 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 "alegre" 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 #83,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alegre" and "altéré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alegre vs allègue". 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 #83,300 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