beautévsbeauxWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,469
“beauté” frequency rank
#1,247
“beaux” frequency rank
2716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature beauté beaux
Definition Qualité de ce qui est beau, de ce qui est esthétique à la perception. Masculin pluriel de beau.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set beauté and beaux apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
beauté
5 ch
beaux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beauté is \bo.te\ while beaux is \bo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beauté is recorded at frequency rank #1,469, classified as anoun, pronounced \bo.te\. beaux is at rank #1,247, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bo\.

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 2716, this pair ranks #435,614 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of beauté vs beaux

Shared letters: abeu. Private to "beauté": . Private to "beaux": x.

"beauté" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV  ·  "beaux" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • beauxbaeux · bbeaux · beauxx · beaxu · beuax · ebaux

Frequency comparison

beauté#1,469
beaux#1,247

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beauté" and "beaux" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beauté" is a noun and "beaux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "beauté" or "beaux"?
"beaux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,247 in our French list, against #1,469 for "beauté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering beauté vs beaux

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “beauté”; for an adjective, it's “beaux”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “beauté” 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