autorisentvsautoriserWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,929
“autorisent” frequency rank
#7,658
“autoriser” frequency rank
28587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature autorisent autoriser
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe autoriser. Revêtir d’une autorité.

Where the eye mixes autorisent and autoriser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
autorisent
9 ch
autoriser

Why the eye confuses autorisent with autoriser

A purely visual mix-up. autorisent (\ɔ.tɔ.ʁiz\) and autoriser (\o.to.ʁi.ze\) 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 28587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

autorisent is recorded at frequency rank #20,929, classified as averb, pronounced \ɔ.tɔ.ʁiz\. autoriser is at rank #7,658, tagged as averb, pronounced \o.to.ʁi.ze\.

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 28587, this pair ranks #321,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of autorisent vs autoriser

Shared letters: aeiorstu. Private to "autorisent": n. Private to "autoriser": -.

"autorisent" · 10 letters · shape VVCVCVCVCC  ·  "autoriser" · 9 letters · shape VVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autorisentatuorisent · auotrisent · autoirsent · autoriesnt · autorisennt · autorisentt · autorisetn · autorisnet
  • autoriseratuoriser · auotriser · autoirser · autoriesr · autoriserr · autorisre · autorisser · autorriser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "autorisent" for "autoriser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.tɔ.ʁiz\ versus \o.to.ʁi.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "autorisent" or "autoriser"?
"autoriser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,658 in our French list, against #20,929 for "autorisent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "autorisent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autoriser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "autorisent" and "autoriser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "autorisent vs autorisez". 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 #321,876 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