antrevsapteTell them apart

Quick tell: antre is a noun, apte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“antre” is a noun and “apte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,525
“antre” frequency rank
#12,518
“apte” frequency rank
34043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature antre apte
Definition Caverne, grotte naturelle. Qui est propre à quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes antre and apte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
antre
4 ch
apte

Why the eye confuses antre with apte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: antre is \ɑ̃tʁ\ while apte is \apt\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

antre is recorded at frequency rank #21,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃tʁ\. apte is at rank #12,518, tagged as anadj, pronounced \apt\.

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 34043, this pair ranks #286,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of antre vs apte

Shared letters: aet. Private to "antre": nr. Private to "apte": p.

"antre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "apte" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • antreanntre · anrte · anter · antrre · anttre · atnre · natre
  • apteapet · appte · atpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "antre" for "apte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "antre" is a noun and "apte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "antre" or "apte"?
"apte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,518 in our French list, against #21,525 for "antre". 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 "antre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "antre" and "apte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "antre vs Aure". 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 #286,558 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