araignéevsassignéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,449
“araignée” frequency rank
#32,688
“assignée” frequency rank
43137
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature araignée assignée
Definition Toile faite par l’aragne (l’araignée). Désigne une personne sous le coup d’une assignation.

Where the eye mixes araignée and assignée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. araignée (VCVVCCVV) and assignée (VCCVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
araignée
8 ch
assignée

Visual trap between araignée and assignée

A purely visual mix-up. araignée (\a.ʁɛ.ɲe\) and assignée (\a.si.ɲe\) 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 43137, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

araignée is recorded at frequency rank #10,449, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.ɲe\. assignée is at rank #32,688, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.si.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 43137, this pair ranks #220,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of araignée vs assignée

Shared letters: aeginé. Private to "araignée": r. Private to "assignée": s.

"araignée" · 8 letters · shape VCVVCCVV  ·  "assignée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "araignée" for "assignée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʁɛ.ɲe\ versus \a.si.ɲe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "araignée" or "assignée"?
"araignée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,449 in our French list, against #32,688 for "assignée". 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 "araignée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assignée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,345 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "araignée" and "assignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assignée vs assignées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #220,345 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