aversevsavortéWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: averse is a noun, avorté is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“averse” is a noun and “avorté” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,451
“averse” frequency rank
#28,846
“avorté” frequency rank
57297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature averse avorté
Definition Pluie soudaine, abondante et généralement brève. Se dit d’un organe d’une plante qui ne s’est pas développé là où il devrait se développer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set averse and avorté apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
averse
6 ch
avorté

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: averse is \a.vɛʁs\ while avorté is \a.vɔʁ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

averse is recorded at frequency rank #28,451, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.vɛʁs\. avorté is at rank #28,846, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.vɔʁ.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 57297, this pair ranks #115,911 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of averse vs avorté

Shared letters: arv. Private to "averse": es. Private to "avorté": oté.

"averse" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "avorté" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • averseaevrse · averrse · avesre · avrese · avverse · vaerse

Frequency comparison

averse#28,451
avorté#28,846

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "averse" and "avorté" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "averse" is a noun and "avorté" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "averse" or "avorté"?
"averse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,451 in our French list, against #28,846 for "avorté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering averse vs avorté

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “averse”; for an adjective, it's “avorté”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “averse” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list