Which to use
“année” and “athée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #173
- “année” frequency rank
- #16,301
- “athée” frequency rank
- 16474
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | année | athée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Subdivision du temps, correspondant à la durée d’une révolution de la Terre autour du Soleil, qui comporte 365 jours (ou 366 jours dans l’année bissextile), 52 semaines environ, 12 mois solaires. | Personne qui ne croit pas en l’existence d’une ou plusieurs divinités. |
Where the eye mixes année and athée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. année and athée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses année with athée
A purely visual mix-up. année (\a.ne\) and athée (\a.te\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
année is recorded at frequency rank #173, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ne\. athée is at rank #16,301, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.te\.
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 16474, this pair ranks #387,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of année vs athée
Shared letters: aeé. Private to "année": n. Private to "athée": ht.
"année" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "athée" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "année" and "athée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "année" vs "athée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "année" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "athée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,673 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "année" and "athée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actée vs athée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #387,673 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.