entièrevsétireWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: entière is a adjective, étire is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“entière” is an adjective and “étire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,574
“entière” frequency rank
#26,236
“étire” frequency rank
28810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entière étire
Definition Féminin singulier de entier. lame métallique (anciennement en pierre) montée sur un manche sur le côté le plus long et qui servait à pratiquer le butage.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set entière and étire apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
entière
5 ch
étire

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: entière is \ɑ̃.tjɛʁ\ while étire is \e.tiʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entière is recorded at frequency rank #2,574, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.tjɛʁ\. étire is at rank #26,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tiʁ\.

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 28810, this pair ranks #320,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entière vs étire

Shared letters: eirt. Private to "entière": . Private to "étire": é.

"entière" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "étire" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequency comparison

entière#2,574
étire#26,236

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entière" and "étire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "entière" is an adjective and "étire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "entière" or "étire"?
"entière" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,574 in our French list, against #26,236 for "étire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering entière vs étire

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “entière”; for a noun, it's “étire”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “entière” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list