Which to use
“autorité” and “autorités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,506
- “autorité” frequency rank
- #1,849
- “autorités” frequency rank
- 3355
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | autorité | autorités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pouvoir ou droit de commander, d’obliger quelqu’un à quelque chose. | Pluriel de autorité. |
Where the eye mixes autorité and autorités
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. autorité runs 8 letters (VVCVCVCV) against autorités's 9 (VVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between autorité and autorités
A purely visual mix-up. autorité (\o.tɔ.ʁi.te\) and autorités (\ɔ.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 extra letter(s) - “autorité” sits inside “autorités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
autorité is recorded at frequency rank #1,506, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.tɔ.ʁi.te\. autorités is at rank #1,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.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 3355, this pair ranks #434,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of autorité vs autorités
Shared letters: aiortué. Private to "autorité": -. Private to "autorités": s.
"autorité" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV · "autorités" · 9 letters · shape VVCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "autorité" and "autorités" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "autorité" or "autorités" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "autorité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autorités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "autorité" and "autorités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "autorisez vs autorités". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #434,232 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.