captervsciterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,009
“capter” frequency rank
#3,596
“citer” frequency rank
14605
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capter citer
Definition Chercher à obtenir quelque chose, ou à gagner quelqu’un par voie d’insinuation. Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse.

Where the eye mixes capter and citer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
capter
5 ch
citer

Why the eye confuses capter with citer

A purely visual mix-up. capter (\kap.te\) and citer (\si.te\) 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 14605, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capter is recorded at frequency rank #11,009, classified as averb, pronounced \kap.te\. citer is at rank #3,596, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.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 14605, this pair ranks #395,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capter vs citer

Shared letters: cert. Private to "capter": ap. Private to "citer": i.

"capter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capteracpter · capetr · cappter · capterr · captre · captter · catper · ccapter
  • citercciter · cietr · citerr · citre · citter · ctier · icter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "capter" and "citer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kap.te\ versus \si.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "capter" or "citer"?
"citer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,596 in our French list, against #11,009 for "capter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "capter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "citer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,950 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capter" and "citer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capter vs carrer". 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 #395,950 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