enquêtevséquitéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,161
“enquête” frequency rank
#10,979
“équité” frequency rank
12140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enquête équité
Definition Recherche méthodique d’informations précises. Sentiment naturel, spontané, du juste et de l’injuste.

Where the eye mixes enquête and équité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. enquête runs 7 letters (VCCVVCV) against équité's 6 (VCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
enquête
6 ch
équité

Why the eye confuses enquête with équité

A purely visual mix-up. enquête (\ɑ̃.kɛt\) and équité (\e.ki.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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enquête is recorded at frequency rank #1,161, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɛt\. équité is at rank #10,979, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ki.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 12140, this pair ranks #406,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of enquête vs équité

Shared letters: qtu. Private to "enquête": enê. Private to "équité": ié.

"enquête" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "équité" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "enquête" for "équité" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.kɛt\ versus \e.ki.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "enquête" or "équité"?
"enquête" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,161 in our French list, against #10,979 for "équité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "enquête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "équité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enquête" and "équité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "équité vs esquivé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #406,429 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