Which to use
“battle” is a noun and “battre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,113
- “battle” frequency rank
- #1,765
- “battre” frequency rank
- 14878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | battle | battre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Confrontation d’improvisation entre deux ou plusieurs chanteurs. | Frapper de coups répétés. |
Where the eye mixes battle and battre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. battle and battre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between battle and battre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: battle is \ba.tœl\ while battre is \batʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “battle” becomes r in “battre”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
battle is recorded at frequency rank #13,113, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.tœl\. battre is at rank #1,765, tagged as averb, pronounced \batʁ\.
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 14878, this pair ranks #394,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of battle vs battre
Shared letters: abet. Private to "battle": l. Private to "battre": r.
"battle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "battre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "battle" for "battre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "battle" or "battre"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "battle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "battre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "battle" and "battre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "basale vs battle". 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 #394,820 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.