Which to use
“citée” is a verb and “critère” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,448
- “citée” frequency rank
- #7,046
- “critère” frequency rank
- 16494
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citée | critère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe citer. | Ce qui sert à distinguer dans une chose le vrai du faux. |
Where the eye mixes citée and critère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. citée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against critère's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: citée vs critère
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citée is \si.te\ while critère is \kʁi.tɛʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
citée is recorded at frequency rank #9,448, classified as averb, pronounced \si.te\. critère is at rank #7,046, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁi.tɛʁ\.
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 16494, this pair ranks #387,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of citée vs critère
Shared letters: ceit. Private to "citée": é. Private to "critère": rè.
"citée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "critère" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "citée" and "critère" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "citée" vs "critère" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "citée" and "critère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "citée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "critère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citée" and "critère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calée vs citée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #387,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.