Which to use
“célèbre” is an adjective and “célébrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,516
- “célèbre” frequency rank
- #6,179
- “célébrer” frequency rank
- 7695
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | célèbre | célébrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est très connu par une population et ses médias. | Louer avec éclat ; publier avec éloge. |
Where the eye mixes célèbre and célébrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. célèbre runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against célébrer's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between célèbre and célébrer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: célèbre is \se.lɛbʁ\ while célébrer is \se.le.bʁe\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
célèbre is recorded at frequency rank #1,516, classified as anadj, pronounced \se.lɛbʁ\. célébrer is at rank #6,179, tagged as averb, pronounced \se.le.bʁe\.
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 7695, this pair ranks #422,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of célèbre vs célébrer
Shared letters: bcelré. Private to "célèbre": è. Private to "célébrer": -.
"célèbre" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "célébrer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "célèbre" and "célébrer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "célèbre" or "célébrer" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "célèbre" and "célébrer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "célèbre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "célébrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "célèbre" and "célébrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "célébrer vs célébrés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #422,422 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.