célèbrevscélébritéWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,516
“célèbre” frequency rank
#9,464
“célébrité” frequency rank
10980
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature célèbre célébrité
Definition Qui est très connu par une population et ses médias. Solennité d'une fête, d'un évènement.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set célèbre and célébrité apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
célèbre
9 ch
célébrité

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: célèbre is \se.lɛbʁ\ while célébrité is \se.le.bʁi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10980, 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\. célébrité is at rank #9,464, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.le.bʁi.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 10980, this pair ranks #410,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of célèbre vs célébrité

Shared letters: bclré. Private to "célèbre": . Private to "célébrité": it.

"célèbre" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "célébrité" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV

Frequency comparison

célèbre#1,516
célébrité#9,464

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "célèbre" and "célébrité" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "célèbre" is an adjective and "célébrité" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "célèbre" or "célébrité"?
"célèbre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,516 in our French list, against #9,464 for "célébrité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering célèbre vs célébrité

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “célèbre”; for a noun, it's “célébrité”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “célèbre” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list