autoritésvsautoroutesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,849
“autorités” frequency rank
#9,788
“autoroutes” frequency rank
11637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature autorités autoroutes
Definition Pluriel de autorité. Pluriel de autoroute.

Where the eye mixes autorités and autoroutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. autorités runs 9 letters (VVCVCVCVC) against autoroutes's 10 (VVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
autorités
10 ch
autoroutes

Visual trap between autorités and autoroutes

A purely visual mix-up. autorités (\ɔ.tɔ.ʁi.te\) and autoroutes (\o.to.ʁut\) 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 11637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

autorités is recorded at frequency rank #1,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.tɔ.ʁi.te\. autoroutes is at rank #9,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.to.ʁut\.

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 11637, this pair ranks #408,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of autorités vs autoroutes

Shared letters: aorstu. Private to "autorités": ié. Private to "autoroutes": e.

"autorités" · 9 letters · shape VVCVCVCVC  ·  "autoroutes" · 10 letters · shape VVCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autoroutes ← atuoroutes · auotroutes · autoorutes · autorotues · autorouets · autoroutess · autoroutse · autorouttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "autorités" for "autoroutes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.tɔ.ʁi.te\ versus \o.to.ʁut\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "autorités" vs "autoroutes" - which ranks higher?
"autorités" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,849 in our French list, against #9,788 for "autoroutes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "autorités" and "autoroutes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "autorités" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autoroutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "autorités" and "autoroutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "autoroutes vs autoroutiers". 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 #408,398 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