Which to use
“author” and “autos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,157
- “author” frequency rank
- #18,656
- “autos” frequency rank
- 56813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | author | autos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Auteur·ice. | Pluriel de auto. |
Where the eye mixes author and autos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. author runs 6 letters (VVCCVC) against autos's 5 (VVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between author and autos
A purely visual mix-up. author (\ˈɔː.θə\) and autos (\ɔ.to\) 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 56813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
author is recorded at frequency rank #38,157, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɔː.θə\. autos is at rank #18,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.to\.
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 56813, this pair ranks #118,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of author vs autos
Shared letters: aotu. Private to "author": hr. Private to "autos": s.
"author" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC · "autos" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "author" for "autos" ever safe?
Which is more common, "author" or "autos"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "author" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #118,747 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "author" and "autos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "astor vs author". 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 #118,747 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.