Which to use
“ath” is an article and “athée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,830
- “ath” frequency rank
- #16,301
- “athée” frequency rank
- 48131
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ath | athée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction de la préposition a et de l'article défini eth. | Personne qui ne croit pas en l’existence d’une ou plusieurs divinités. |
Where the eye mixes ath and athée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ath vs athée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ath is \at\ while athée is \a.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ath” sits inside “athée”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ath is recorded at frequency rank #31,830, classified as anarticle, pronounced \at\. athée is at rank #16,301, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.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 48131, this pair ranks #181,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ath vs athée
Shared letters: aht. Private to "ath": -. Private to "athée": eé.
"ath" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "athée" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ath" and "athée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ath" vs "athée" - which ranks higher?
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 "ath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "athée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ath" and "athée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ath vs aur". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #181,396 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.