Which to use
“conteneur” is a noun and “contenus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,150
- “conteneur” frequency rank
- #5,233
- “contenus” frequency rank
- 28383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conteneur | contenus |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Masculin pluriel de contenu. |
Where the eye mixes conteneur and contenus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. conteneur runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVVC) against contenus's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between conteneur and contenus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conteneur is \kɔ̃t.nœʁ\ while contenus is \kɔ̃t.ny\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28383, 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\. contenus is at rank #5,233, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃t.ny\.
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 28383, this pair ranks #323,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conteneur vs contenus
Shared letters: cenotu. Private to "conteneur": r. Private to "contenus": s.
"conteneur" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC · "contenus" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "conteneur" for "contenus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "conteneur" vs "contenus" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "conteneur" and "contenus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "conteneur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contenus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #323,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conteneur" and "contenus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contenus vs convenues". 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 #323,189 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.