Which to use
“arrêté” and “arriéré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,018
- “arrêté” frequency rank
- #37,661
- “arriéré” frequency rank
- 38679
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arrêté | arriéré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est immobile, immuable. | Qui est en retard. |
Where the eye mixes arrêté and arriéré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. arrêté runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against arriéré's 7 (VCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between arrêté and arriéré
A purely visual mix-up. arrêté (\a.ʁɛ.te\) and arriéré (\a.ʁje.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arrêté is recorded at frequency rank #1,018, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.te\. arriéré is at rank #37,661, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ʁje.ʁe\.
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 38679, this pair ranks #253,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of arrêté vs arriéré
Shared letters: aré. Private to "arrêté": tê. Private to "arriéré": i.
"arrêté" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "arriéré" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "arrêté" and "arriéré" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "arrêté" or "arriéré"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "arrêté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arriéré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #253,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arrêté" and "arriéré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arriéré vs arriverez". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #253,579 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.