commèrevscommetWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: commère is a noun, commet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“commère” is a noun and “commet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,075
“commère” frequency rank
#13,547
“commet” frequency rank
59622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commère commet
Definition Personne qui est la marraine d’un même enfant, du point de vue du parrain, du père et de mère de l’enfant. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de commettre.

Where the eye mixes commère and commet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. commère runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against commet's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
commère
6 ch
commet

Visual trap between commère and commet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: commère is \kɔ.mɛʁ\ while commet is \kɔ.mɛ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commère is recorded at frequency rank #46,075, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.mɛʁ\. commet is at rank #13,547, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.mɛ\.

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 59622, this pair ranks #102,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of commère vs commet

Shared letters: cemo. Private to "commère": rè. Private to "commet": t.

"commère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "commet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commet ← ccommet · cmomet · comemt · commett · ocmmet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commère" and "commet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "commère" is a noun and "commet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "commère" or "commet"?
"commet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,547 in our French list, against #46,075 for "commère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "commère" and "commet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commère" and "commet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commercer vs commère". 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 #102,130 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