Which to use
“arêtes” is a noun and “arrêtées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,766
- “arêtes” frequency rank
- #15,091
- “arrêtées” frequency rank
- 38857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arêtes | arrêtées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de arête. | Féminin pluriel de arrêté. |
Where the eye mixes arêtes and arrêtées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. arêtes runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against arrêtées's 8 (VCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between arêtes and arrêtées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arêtes is \a.ʁɛt\ while arrêtées is \a.ʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 38857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arêtes is recorded at frequency rank #23,766, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛt\. arrêtées is at rank #15,091, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.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 38857, this pair ranks #252,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of arêtes vs arrêtées
Shared letters: aerstê. Private to "arêtes": -. Private to "arrêtées": é.
"arêtes" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC · "arrêtées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "arêtes" for "arrêtées" ever safe?
Frequency check: "arêtes" vs "arrêtées" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "arêtes" and "arrêtées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "arêtes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arrêtées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #252,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arêtes" and "arrêtées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arêtes vs Artis". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #252,315 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.