entenduevsétendueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,000
“entendue” frequency rank
#5,207
“étendue” frequency rank
14207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entendue étendue
Definition Femme qui se croit capable, qui est suffisante, qui joue l’importante. Dimension d’une chose en longueur, largeur et profondeur.

Where the eye mixes entendue and étendue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. entendue runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against étendue's 7 (VCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
entendue
7 ch
étendue

Look-alike desk: entendue vs étendue

A purely visual mix-up. entendue (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dy\) and étendue (\e.tɑ̃.dy\) 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 14207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entendue is recorded at frequency rank #9,000, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dy\. étendue is at rank #5,207, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tɑ̃.dy\.

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 14207, this pair ranks #397,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entendue vs étendue

Shared letters: dentu. Private to "entendue": -. Private to "étendue": é.

"entendue" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "étendue" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entendue ← enetndue · enntendue · entednue · entenddue · entendeu · entenndue · entenude · entnedue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entendue" and "étendue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dy\ versus \e.tɑ̃.dy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "entendue" or "étendue" show up more?
"étendue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,207 in our French list, against #9,000 for "entendue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "entendue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étendue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entendue" and "étendue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entendis vs entendue". 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 #397,705 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