Which to use
“capitaine” and “captain” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,387
- “capitaine” frequency rank
- #14,622
- “captain” frequency rank
- 16009
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | capitaine | captain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grade d’officier, le plus élevé en grade des officiers subalternes. Ce grade correspond à celui de lieutenant de vaisseau dans la Marine nationale française. Le code OTAN : OF-2. Dans la Marine nationale : Capitaine de corvette, de frégate, de vaisseau, officiers de marine dont les grades équivalent respectivement à ceux de commandant, lieutenant-colonel, colonel dans l'armée de terre. | Capitaine (dans un contexte anglophone). |
Letter map: capitaine vs captain
Shared letters muted; letters that set capitaine and captain apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. capitaine runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCV) against captain's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on capitaine vs captain
capitaine and captain are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
capitaine is recorded at frequency rank #1,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pi.tɛn\. captain is at rank #14,622, tagged as anoun.
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 16009, this pair ranks #389,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of capitaine vs captain
Shared letters: acinpt. Private to "capitaine": e. Private to "captain": -.
"capitaine" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV · "captain" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "capitaine" and "captain" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "capitaine" or "captain" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "capitaine" and "captain".
- Full dictionary entry for "capitaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "captain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "capitaine" and "captain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captage vs captain". 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 #389,810 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.