Which to use
“artist” and “artistes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,888
- “artist” frequency rank
- #1,504
- “artistes” frequency rank
- 27392
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | artist | artistes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Artiste. | Pluriel de artiste. |
Where the eye mixes artist and artistes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. artist runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against artistes's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: artist vs artistes
A purely visual mix-up. artist (\ˈɑɹ.tɪst\) and artistes (\aʁ.tist\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “artist” sits inside “artistes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
artist is recorded at frequency rank #25,888, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɑɹ.tɪst\. artistes is at rank #1,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.tist\.
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 27392, this pair ranks #329,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of artist vs artistes
Shared letters: airst. Private to "artist": -. Private to "artistes": e.
"artist" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "artistes" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "artist" for "artistes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "artist" or "artistes"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "artist" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "artistes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "artist" and "artistes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arti vs artist". 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 #329,287 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.