AtomvsatomeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,255
“Atom” frequency rank
#15,092
“atome” frequency rank
51347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Atom atome
Definition Atome. Composant de la matière, plus petite partie d’un corps simple pouvant se combiner avec une autre.

Same sound, different letters: Atom vs atome

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

4 ch
Atom
5 ch
atome

Same sound, different spelling - Atom / atome

This is the hard kind. Atom and atome are pronounced identically (\aˈtoːm\) 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) - “Atom” sits inside “atome”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Atom is recorded at frequency rank #36,255, classified as anoun, pronounced \aˈtoːm\. atome is at rank #15,092, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tom\.

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 51347, this pair ranks #155,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Atom vs atome

Shared letters: amot. Private to "Atom": -. Private to "atome": e.

"Atom" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "atome" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Atomaotm · atmo · atomm · attom · taom
  • atomeaotme · atmoe · atoem · atomme · attome · taome

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Atom" and "atome" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\aˈtoːm\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "Atom" vs "atome" - which ranks higher?
"atome" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,092 in our French list, against #36,255 for "Atom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Atom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atome" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Atom" and "atome" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "astor vs Atom". 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 #155,721 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