embêtevsémeuteTell them apart

Quick tell: embête is a verb, émeute is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“embête” is a verb and “émeute” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,944
“embête” frequency rank
#12,505
“émeute” frequency rank
30449
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature embête émeute
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de embêter. Tumulte séditieux, soulèvement dans la foule.

Where the eye mixes embête and émeute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. embête (VCCVCV) and émeute (VCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
embête
6 ch
émeute

Look-alike desk: embête vs émeute

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: embête is \ɑ̃.bɛt\ while émeute is \e.møt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

embête is recorded at frequency rank #17,944, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.bɛt\. émeute is at rank #12,505, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.møt\.

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 30449, this pair ranks #310,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of embête vs émeute

Shared letters: emt. Private to "embête": bê. Private to "émeute": ué.

"embête" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "émeute" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "embête" and "émeute" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "embête" is a verb and "émeute" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "embête" vs "émeute" - which ranks higher?
"émeute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,505 in our French list, against #17,944 for "embête". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "embête" and "émeute" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "embête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "émeute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,252 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "embête" and "émeute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "embête vs entêté". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #310,252 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