Which to use
“faîte” and “faute” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,026
- “faîte” frequency rank
- #874
- “faute” frequency rank
- 31900
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faîte | faute |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Comble, partie la plus élevée d’un bâtiment, d’un édifice. | Manquement plus ou moins grave à un devoir, à une loi, à une règle, à un usage, à une convenance. |
Where the eye mixes faîte and faute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faîte vs faute
A purely visual mix-up. faîte (\fɛt\) and faute (\fot\) 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 a single letter - î in “faîte” becomes u in “faute”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faîte is recorded at frequency rank #31,026, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\. faute is at rank #874, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fot\.
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 31900, this pair ranks #300,841 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of faîte vs faute
Shared letters: aeft. Private to "faîte": î. Private to "faute": u.
"faîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "faute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- faute ← afute · fatue · fauet · fautte · ffaute · fuate
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faîte" for "faute" ever safe?
Frequency check: "faîte" vs "faute" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "faîte" and "faute" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faîte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,841 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faîte" and "faute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faîte vs fange". 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 #300,841 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.