Which to use
“conte” and “conteur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,741
- “conte” frequency rank
- #23,152
- “conteur” frequency rank
- 27893
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conte | conteur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Récit d’aventures imaginaires, soit qu’elles aient de la vraisemblance ou que s’y mêle du merveilleux, du féerique. | Celui qui écrit ou raconte des contes. |
Where the eye mixes conte and conteur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between conte and conteur
A purely visual mix-up. conte (\kɔ̃t\) and conteur (\kɔ̃.tœʁ\) 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 “conteur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27893, 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\. conteur is at rank #23,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tœʁ\.
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 27893, this pair ranks #326,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conte vs conteur
Shared letters: cenot. Private to "conte": -. Private to "conteur": ru.
"conte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "conteur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "conte" and "conteur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "conte" or "conteur"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "conte" and "conteur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "conte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "conteur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #326,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conte" and "conteur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conteur 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 #326,108 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.