Which to use
“fessée” and “fosse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,551
- “fessée” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 31515
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fessée | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Châtiment corporel consistant en une série de claques ou de coups administrés sur les fesses à main nue ou à l’aide d’un instrument. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Where the eye mixes fessée and fosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fessée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against fosse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fessée vs fosse
A purely visual mix-up. fessée (\fɛ.se\) and fosse (\fos\) 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 31515, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fessée is recorded at frequency rank #23,551, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛ.se\. fosse is at rank #7,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fos\.
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 31515, this pair ranks #303,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fessée vs fosse
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fessée": é. Private to "fosse": o.
"fessée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fosse ← ffosse · fose · foses · fsose · ofsse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fessée" and "fosse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fessée" or "fosse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fessée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #303,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fessée" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faussée vs fessée". 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 #303,334 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.