altitudesvsaptitudeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,366
“altitudes” frequency rank
#12,306
“aptitude” frequency rank
47672
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altitudes aptitude
Definition Pluriel de altitude. Capacité, compétence, disposition naturelle à faire quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes altitudes and aptitude

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. altitudes runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVC) against aptitude's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
altitudes
8 ch
aptitude

Look-alike desk: altitudes vs aptitude

A purely visual mix-up. altitudes (\al.ti.tyd\) and aptitude (\ap.ti.tyd\) 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 47672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altitudes is recorded at frequency rank #35,366, classified as anoun, pronounced \al.ti.tyd\. aptitude is at rank #12,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ap.ti.tyd\.

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 47672, this pair ranks #185,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altitudes vs aptitude

Shared letters: adeitu. Private to "altitudes": ls. Private to "aptitude": p.

"altitudes" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC  ·  "aptitude" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altitudes ← alittudes · alltitudes · altitdues · altittudes · altituddes · altitudess · altitudse · altitueds
  • aptitude ← apittude · apptitude · aptitdue · aptittude · aptitudde · aptitued · aptiutde · apttitude

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "altitudes" and "aptitude" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\al.ti.tyd\ versus \ap.ti.tyd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "altitudes" or "aptitude" show up more?
"aptitude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,306 in our French list, against #35,366 for "altitudes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "altitudes" and "aptitude" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altitudes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aptitude" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #185,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altitudes" and "aptitude" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altitudes vs aptitudes". 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 #185,082 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