entaméevsétaléeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,538
“entamée” frequency rank
#31,313
“étalée” frequency rank
54851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entamée étalée
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de entamer. Participe passé féminin singulier de étaler.

Where the eye mixes entamée and étalée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. entamée runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against étalée's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
entamée
6 ch
étalée

Look-alike desk: entamée vs étalée

A purely visual mix-up. entamée (\ɑ̃.ta.me\) and étalée (\e.ta.le\) 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 54851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entamée is recorded at frequency rank #23,538, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ta.me\. étalée is at rank #31,313, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ta.le\.

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 54851, this pair ranks #131,262 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entamée vs étalée

Shared letters: aeté. Private to "entamée": mn. Private to "étalée": l.

"entamée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "étalée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entamée" and "étalée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.ta.me\ versus \e.ta.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "entamée" vs "étalée" - which ranks higher?
"entamée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,538 in our French list, against #31,313 for "étalée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "entamée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étalée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,262 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entamée" and "étalée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étalée vs étayée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #131,262 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