Which to use
“conteneur” is a noun and “contenter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,150
- “conteneur” frequency rank
- #6,693
- “contenter” frequency rank
- 29843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conteneur | contenter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caisse métallique, parallélépipèdique, polyvalente (conçue pour le transport de marchandises par différents modes de transport), normalisée et munie, dans les angles, de pièces de préhension permettant l’arrimage et le transbordage. | Rendre quelqu’un content en lui procurant ce qu’il souhaite avoir. |
Where the eye mixes conteneur and contenter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between conteneur and contenter
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conteneur is \kɔ̃t.nœʁ\ while contenter is \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
conteneur is recorded at frequency rank #23,150, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t.nœʁ\. contenter is at rank #6,693, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.te\.
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 29843, this pair ranks #314,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conteneur vs contenter
Shared letters: cenort. Private to "conteneur": u. Private to "contenter": -.
"conteneur" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC · "contenter" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "conteneur" and "contenter" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "conteneur" or "contenter" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "conteneur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contenter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #314,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conteneur" and "contenter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contentée vs contenter". 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 #314,114 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.