avortervsavouerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,657
“avorter” frequency rank
#4,125
“avouer” frequency rank
22782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avorter avouer
Definition Mettre bas accidentellement un fœtus non viable (pour les femmes, on dit « faire une fausse couche »). Confesser et reconnaître qu’une chose est ou n’est pas, témoigner de la vérité.

Where the eye mixes avorter and avouer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. avorter runs 7 letters (VCVCCVC) against avouer's 6 (VCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
avorter
6 ch
avouer

Why the eye confuses avorter with avouer

A purely visual mix-up. avorter (\a.vɔʁ.te\) and avouer (\a.vwe\) 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 22782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avorter is recorded at frequency rank #18,657, classified as averb, pronounced \a.vɔʁ.te\. avouer is at rank #4,125, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vwe\.

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 22782, this pair ranks #356,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of avorter vs avouer

Shared letters: aeorv. Private to "avorter": t. Private to "avouer": u.

"avorter" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "avouer" · 6 letters · shape VCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avorter ← aovrter · avoretr · avorrter · avorterr · avortre · avortter · avotrer · avroter
  • avouer ← aovuer · avoeur · avouerr · avoure · avuoer · avvouer · vaouer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "avorter" and "avouer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.vɔʁ.te\ versus \a.vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "avorter" or "avouer"?
"avouer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,125 in our French list, against #18,657 for "avorter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avorter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avorter" and "avouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avortée vs avorter". 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 #356,191 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