Which to use
“commère” and “compère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,075
- “commère” frequency rank
- #30,532
- “compère” frequency rank
- 76607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | commère | compère |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui est la marraine d’un même enfant, du point de vue du parrain, du père et de mère de l’enfant. | Parrain d’un enfant, par rapport à la marraine et aux parents de l'enfant. |
Where the eye mixes commère and compère
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. commère and compère follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses commère with compère
A purely visual mix-up. commère (\kɔ.mɛʁ\) and compère (\kɔ̃.pɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - m in “commère” becomes p in “compère”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76607, 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\. compère is at rank #30,532, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.pɛʁ\.
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 76607, this pair ranks #30,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of commère vs compère
Shared letters: cemorè. Private to "commère": -. Private to "compère": p.
"commère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "compère" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "commère" and "compère" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "commère" vs "compère" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "commère" and "compère" 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 "compère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,637 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "commère" and "compère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commercer vs commère". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #30,637 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.