Which to use
“authority” and “autorité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,260
- “authority” frequency rank
- #1,506
- “autorité” frequency rank
- 37766
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | authority | autorité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Autorité, capacité de faire respecter les règles. | Pouvoir ou droit de commander, d’obliger quelqu’un à quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes authority and autorité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. authority runs 9 letters (VVCCVCVCV) against autorité's 8 (VVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: authority vs autorité
A purely visual mix-up. authority (\ɔːˈθɒɹəti\) and autorité (\o.tɔ.ʁi.te\) 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 37766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
authority is recorded at frequency rank #36,260, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔːˈθɒɹəti\. autorité is at rank #1,506, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tɔ.ʁi.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 37766, this pair ranks #260,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of authority vs autorité
Shared letters: aiortu. Private to "authority": hy. Private to "autorité": é.
"authority" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVCVCV · "autorité" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- authority ← atuhority · auhtority · authhority · authoirty · authoritty · authorityy · authoriyt · authorrity
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "authority" for "autorité" ever safe?
Frequency check: "authority" vs "autorité" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "authority" and "autorité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "authority" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autorité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #260,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "authority" and "autorité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "autorisez vs autorité". 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 #260,076 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.