autoritévsautriceWhat's the difference?

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set autorité and autrice apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
autorité
7 ch
autrice

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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": . Private to "autrice": ce.

"autorité" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV  ·  "autrice" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autriceaturice · aurtice · autirce · autrcie · autricce · autriec · autrrice · auttrice

Frequency comparison

autorité#1,506
autrice#44,315

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "autorité" and "autrice" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\o.tɔ.ʁi.te\ versus \o.tʁis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "autorité" or "autrice"?
"autorité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,506 in our French list, against #44,315 for "autrice". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering autorité vs autrice

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “autorité” 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