Which to use
“conte” and “contest” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,741
- “conte” frequency rank
- #39,722
- “contest” frequency rank
- 44463
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conte | contest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Récit d’aventures imaginaires, soit qu’elles aient de la vraisemblance ou que s’y mêle du merveilleux, du féerique. | Concours. |
Where the eye mixes conte and contest
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between conte and contest
A purely visual mix-up. conte (\kɔ̃t\) and contest (\ˈkɒn.tɛst\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “conte” sits inside “contest”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
conte is recorded at frequency rank #4,741, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\. contest is at rank #39,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɒn.tɛst\.
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 44463, this pair ranks #210,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conte vs contest
Shared letters: cenot. Private to "conte": -. Private to "contest": s.
"conte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "contest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "conte" and "contest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "conte" or "contest" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "conte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,279 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conte" and "contest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contest vs context". 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 #210,279 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.