Which to use
“écarté” and “écharpe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,691
- “écarté” frequency rank
- #13,091
- “écharpe” frequency rank
- 24782
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écarté | écharpe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jeu de cartes qui se joue à deux et où l’on peut écarter tout ou partie des cartes. | Large bande d’étoffe, que l’on portait autrefois de la droite à la gauche en forme de baudrier et qu’on porta encore en forme de ceinture. |
Where the eye mixes écarté and écharpe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. écarté runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against écharpe's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses écarté with écharpe
A purely visual mix-up. écarté (\e.kaʁ.te\) and écharpe (\e.ʃaʁp\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écarté is recorded at frequency rank #11,691, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ.te\. écharpe is at rank #13,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ʃaʁp\.
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 24782, this pair ranks #344,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écarté vs écharpe
Shared letters: acré. Private to "écarté": t. Private to "écharpe": ehp.
"écarté" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "écharpe" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écarté" for "écharpe" ever safe?
Which is more common, "écarté" or "écharpe"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "écarté" and "écharpe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "écarté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écharpe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écarté" and "écharpe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écharpe vs échoppe". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #344,645 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.