célèbrevscélébrésTell them apart

Quick tell: célèbre is a adjective, célébrés is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“célèbre” is an adjective and “célébrés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,516
“célèbre” frequency rank
#37,268
“célébrés” frequency rank
38784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature célèbre célébrés
Definition Qui est très connu par une population et ses médias. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe célébrer.

Where the eye mixes célèbre and célébrés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. célèbre runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against célébrés's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
célèbre
8 ch
célébrés

Look-alike desk: célèbre vs célébrés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: célèbre is \se.lɛbʁ\ while célébrés 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 38784, 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\. célébrés is at rank #37,268, 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 38784, this pair ranks #252,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of célèbre vs célébrés

Shared letters: bclré. Private to "célèbre": eè. Private to "célébrés": s.

"célèbre" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "célébrés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "célèbre" and "célébrés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "célèbre" is an adjective and "célébrés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "célèbre" vs "célébrés" - which ranks higher?
"célèbre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,516 in our French list, against #37,268 for "célébrés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "célèbre" and "célébrés" 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 "célébrés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #252,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "célèbre" and "célébrés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "célébrés vs célébrons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #252,837 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