alignéevsaraignéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,632
“alignée” frequency rank
#10,449
“araignée” frequency rank
50081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alignée araignée
Definition Ensemble de choses qui sont placées en ligne. Toile faite par l’aragne (l’araignée).

Where the eye mixes alignée and araignée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
alignée
8 ch
araignée

Look-alike desk: alignée vs araignée

A purely visual mix-up. alignée (\a.li.ɲe\) and araignée (\a.ʁɛ.ɲe\) 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 50081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alignée is recorded at frequency rank #39,632, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.li.ɲe\. araignée is at rank #10,449, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.ɲe\.

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 50081, this pair ranks #165,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alignée vs araignée

Shared letters: aeginé. Private to "alignée": l. Private to "araignée": r.

"alignée" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "araignée" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alignée" for "araignée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.li.ɲe\ versus \a.ʁɛ.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alignée" or "araignée"?
"araignée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,449 in our French list, against #39,632 for "alignée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "alignée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "araignée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alignée" and "araignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aliéné vs alignée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #165,467 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