artèrevsartèresConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,525
“artère” frequency rank
#14,414
“artères” frequency rank
25939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature artère artères
Definition Tube musculaire, élastique et contractile dans lequel le sang, projeté par les contractions du cœur, est porté dans tous les organes. Pluriel de artère.

Same sound, different letters: artère vs artères

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. artère runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against artères's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
artère
7 ch
artères

Ear matches; page differs - artère and artères

This is the hard kind. artère and artères are pronounced identically (\aʁ.tɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “artère” sits inside “artères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

artère is recorded at frequency rank #11,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.tɛʁ\. artères is at rank #14,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.tɛʁ\.

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 25939, this pair ranks #337,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of artère vs artères

Shared letters: aertè. Private to "artère": -. Private to "artères": s.

"artère" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "artères" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "artère" for "artères" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\aʁ.tɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "artère" vs "artères" - which ranks higher?
"artère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,525 in our French list, against #14,414 for "artères". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "artère" / "artères". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "artère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "artères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "artère" and "artères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actée vs artère". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #337,994 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