écritevsémériteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“écrite” and “émérite” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,724
“écrite” frequency rank
#21,514
“émérite” frequency rank
25238
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrite émérite
Definition Féminin singulier de écrit. Qui, ayant exercé un emploi pendant un certain temps, le quitte pour jouir des honneurs et de la récompense dus à ses services.

Where the eye mixes écrite and émérite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. écrite runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against émérite's 7 (VCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
écrite
7 ch
émérite

Look-alike desk: écrite vs émérite

A purely visual mix-up. écrite (\e.kʁit\) and émérite (\e.me.ʁit\) 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 25238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrite is recorded at frequency rank #3,724, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.kʁit\. émérite is at rank #21,514, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.me.ʁit\.

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 25238, this pair ranks #341,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrite vs émérite

Shared letters: eirté. Private to "écrite": c. Private to "émérite": m.

"écrite" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "émérite" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écrite" for "émérite" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁit\ versus \e.me.ʁit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écrite" vs "émérite" - which ranks higher?
"écrite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,724 in our French list, against #21,514 for "émérite". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "écrite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "émérite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrite" and "émérite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émergée vs émérite". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #341,989 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list