centréevscentrerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,829
“centrée” frequency rank
#33,164
“centrer” frequency rank
48993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature centrée centrer
Definition Féminin singulier de centré. Mettre dans son centre.

Same sound, different letters: centrée vs centrer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
centrée
7 ch
centrer

Ear matches; page differs - centrée and centrer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: centrée and centrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sɑ̃.tʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

centrée is recorded at frequency rank #15,829, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.tʁe\. centrer is at rank #33,164, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃.tʁe\.

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 48993, this pair ranks #174,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of centrée vs centrer

Shared letters: cenrt. Private to "centrée": é. Private to "centrer": -.

"centrée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV  ·  "centrer" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • centrerccentrer · cenntrer · cenrter · centrerr · centrrer · centtrer · cetnrer · cnetrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "centrée" and "centrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "centrée" is an adjective and "centrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "centrée" or "centrer" show up more?
"centrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,829 in our French list, against #33,164 for "centrer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "centrée" / "centrer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "centrée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "centrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #174,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "centrée" and "centrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centers vs centrer". 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 #174,372 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