Which to use
“contest” and “conteur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,722
- “contest” frequency rank
- #23,152
- “conteur” frequency rank
- 62874
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contest | conteur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Concours. | Celui qui écrit ou raconte des contes. |
Where the eye mixes contest and conteur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. contest (CVCCVCC) and conteur (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: contest vs conteur
A purely visual mix-up. contest (\ˈkɒn.tɛst\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62874, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contest is recorded at frequency rank #39,722, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɒn.tɛst\. 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 62874, this pair ranks #84,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of contest vs conteur
Shared letters: cenot. Private to "contest": s. Private to "conteur": ru.
"contest" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "conteur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "contest" for "conteur" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "contest" or "conteur" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "contest" and "conteur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "contest" 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 #84,800 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contest" and "conteur" 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 #84,800 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.