entamevsentréeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,479
“entame” frequency rank
#752
“entrée” frequency rank
10231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entame entrée
Definition Première tranche d’un aliment qu’on a découpé. Endroit par où l’on entre dans un lieu.

Where the eye mixes entame and entrée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. entame (VCCVCV) and entrée (VCCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
entame
6 ch
entrée

Why the eye confuses entame with entrée

A purely visual mix-up. entame (\ɑ̃.tam\) and entrée (\ɑ̃.tʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entame is recorded at frequency rank #9,479, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tam\. entrée is at rank #752, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁe\.

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 10231, this pair ranks #413,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entame vs entrée

Shared letters: ent. Private to "entame": am. Private to "entrée": ré.

"entame" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "entrée" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entame ← enatme · enntame · entaem · entamme · entmae · enttame · etname · netame

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entame" and "entrée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tam\ versus \ɑ̃.tʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "entame" vs "entrée" - which ranks higher?
"entrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #752 in our French list, against #9,479 for "entame". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entrée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entame" and "entrée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entame vs entêté". 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 #413,746 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