autoriservsautoritéWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: autoriser is a verb, autorité is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“autoriser” is a verb and “autorité” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,658
“autoriser” frequency rank
#1,506
“autorité” frequency rank
9164
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature autoriser autorité
Definition Revêtir d’une autorité. Pouvoir ou droit de commander, d’obliger quelqu’un à quelque chose.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set autoriser and autorité apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
autoriser
8 ch
autorité

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: autoriser is \o.to.ʁi.ze\ while autorité is \o.tɔ.ʁi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9164, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

autoriser is recorded at frequency rank #7,658, classified as averb, pronounced \o.to.ʁi.ze\. 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 9164, this pair ranks #417,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of autoriser vs autorité

Shared letters: aiortu. Private to "autoriser": es. Private to "autorité": é.

"autoriser" · 9 letters · shape VVCVCVCVC  ·  "autorité" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autoriseratuoriser · auotriser · autoirser · autoriesr · autoriserr · autorisre · autorisser · autorriser

Frequency comparison

autoriser#7,658
autorité#1,506

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "autoriser" and "autorité" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "autoriser" is a verb and "autorité" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "autoriser" or "autorité"?
"autorité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,506 in our French list, against #7,658 for "autoriser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering autoriser vs autorité

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “autoriser”; for a noun, it's “autorité”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “autoriser” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list