étiquetévsétiquetteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,094
“étiqueté” frequency rank
#6,262
“étiquette” frequency rank
46356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étiqueté étiquette
Definition Qui a reçu une étiquette. Petit bout de papier (collant ou non) ou de tissu servant à l’identification ou à donner des informations complémentaires comme le prix d’un produit ou la température de lavage d’un vêtement par exemple.

Where the eye mixes étiqueté and étiquette

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. étiqueté runs 8 letters (VCVCVVCV) against étiquette's 9 (VCVCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
étiqueté
9 ch
étiquette

Why the eye confuses étiqueté with étiquette

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: étiqueté is \e.ti.kə.te\ while étiquette is \e.ti.kɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 46356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étiqueté is recorded at frequency rank #40,094, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.ti.kə.te\. étiquette is at rank #6,262, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ti.kɛt\.

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 46356, this pair ranks #195,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of étiqueté vs étiquette

Shared letters: eiqtué. Private to "étiqueté": -. Private to "étiquette": -.

"étiqueté" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVVCV  ·  "étiquette" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "étiqueté" and "étiquette" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "étiqueté" is an adjective and "étiquette" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "étiqueté" vs "étiquette" - which ranks higher?
"étiquette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,262 in our French list, against #40,094 for "étiqueté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "étiqueté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étiquette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #195,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étiqueté" and "étiquette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étiquetage vs étiqueté". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #195,644 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