contevscontextWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“conte” and “context” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,741
“conte” frequency rank
#45,524
“context” frequency rank
50265
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conte context
Definition Récit d’aventures imaginaires, soit qu’elles aient de la vraisemblance ou que s’y mêle du merveilleux, du féerique. Contexte.

Where the eye mixes conte and context

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
conte
7 ch
context

Why the eye confuses conte with context

A purely visual mix-up. conte (\kɔ̃t\) and context (\ˈkɒn.tɛkst\) 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 “context”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50265, 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\. context is at rank #45,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɒn.tɛkst\.

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 50265, this pair ranks #164,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conte vs context

Shared letters: cenot. Private to "conte": -. Private to "context": x.

"conte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "context" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contecconte · cnote · conet · connte · contte · cotne · ocnte
  • contextccontext · cnotext · conetxt · conntext · contetx · contextt · contexxt · conttext

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conte" and "context" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃t\ versus \ˈkɒn.tɛkst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "conte" or "context"?
"conte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,741 in our French list, against #45,524 for "context". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "context" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conte" and "context" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contant 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 #164,031 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