Which to use
“autorité” and “autrice” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,506
- “autorité” frequency rank
- #44,315
- “autrice” frequency rank
- 45821
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | autorité | autrice |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pouvoir ou droit de commander, d’obliger quelqu’un à quelque chose. | Celle qui est à l’origine de quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes autorité and autrice
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. autorité runs 8 letters (VVCVCVCV) against autrice's 7 (VVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: autorité vs autrice
A purely visual mix-up. autorité (\o.tɔ.ʁi.te\) and autrice (\o.tʁis\) 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 45821, 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\. autrice is at rank #44,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tʁis\.
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 45821, this pair ranks #199,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of autorité vs autrice
Shared letters: airtu. Private to "autorité": oé. Private to "autrice": ce.
"autorité" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV · "autrice" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- autrice ← aturice · aurtice · autirce · autrcie · autricce · autriec · autrrice · auttrice
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "autorité" for "autrice" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "autorité" or "autrice" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "autorité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autrice" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "autorité" and "autrice" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amatrice vs autrice". 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 #199,769 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.