Which to use
“appât” and “appui” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,239
- “appât” frequency rank
- #2,755
- “appui” frequency rank
- 23994
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appât | appui |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pâture qu’on met soit à des pièges, pour attirer des quadrupèdes ou des oiseaux, soit à des hameçons, pour pêcher des poissons. | Ce qui sert à soutenir une chose ou une personne pour l’empêcher de tomber, de chanceler, etc. |
Where the eye mixes appât and appui
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: appât vs appui
A purely visual mix-up. appât (\a.pɑ\) and appui (\a.pɥi\) 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 23994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appât is recorded at frequency rank #21,239, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɑ\. appui is at rank #2,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pɥi\.
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 23994, this pair ranks #349,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of appât vs appui
Shared letters: ap. Private to "appât": tâ. Private to "appui": iu.
"appât" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "appui" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- appui ← appiu · apui · apupi · papui
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "appât" for "appui" ever safe?
Which is more common, "appât" or "appui"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "appât" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "appui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appât" and "appui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appât vs appâts". 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 #349,274 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.