Which to use
“dicte” and “dicter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,979
- “dicte” frequency rank
- #20,113
- “dicter” frequency rank
- 41092
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dicte | dicter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dicter. | Prononcer plus ou moins lentement et à haute voix ce qu'on fait écrire au fur et à mesure par quelqu'un. |
Where the eye mixes dicte and dicter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dicte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dicter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dicte with dicter
A purely visual mix-up. dicte (\dikt\) and dicter (\dik.te\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “dicte” sits inside “dicter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41092, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dicte is recorded at frequency rank #20,979, classified as averb, pronounced \dikt\. dicter is at rank #20,113, tagged as averb, pronounced \dik.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 41092, this pair ranks #235,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dicte vs dicter
Shared letters: cdeit. Private to "dicte": -. Private to "dicter": r.
"dicte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "dicter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dicte" for "dicter" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dicte" vs "dicter" - which ranks higher?
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 "dicte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dicter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #235,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dicte" and "dicter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dicte". 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 #235,595 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.