Which to use
“citer” is a verb and “critère” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,596
- “citer” frequency rank
- #7,046
- “critère” frequency rank
- 10642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | citer | critère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Assigner à comparaître devant une juridiction civile ou religieuse. | Ce qui sert à distinguer dans une chose le vrai du faux. |
Where the eye mixes citer and critère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. citer runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against critère's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between citer and critère
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citer 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 10642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
citer is recorded at frequency rank #3,596, 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 10642, this pair ranks #412,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of citer vs critère
Shared letters: ceirt. Private to "citer": -. Private to "critère": è.
"citer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "critère" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- citer ← cciter · cietr · citerr · citre · citter · ctier · icter
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "citer" and "critère" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "citer" or "critère" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "citer" and "critère" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "citer" 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 #412,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "citer" and "critère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "citera vs critère". 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 #412,199 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.