ghostvsguestConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,636
“ghost” frequency rank
#21,642
“guest” frequency rank
37278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ghost guest
Definition Clone de données, effectué à l'aide du célèbre logiciel Ghost. Personne invitée à titre exceptionnel, par exemple dans un épisode de série télévisée

Where the eye mixes ghost and guest

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ghost
5 ch
guest

Visual trap between ghost and guest

A purely visual mix-up. ghost (\ɡɔst\) and guest (\ɡɛst\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ghost is recorded at frequency rank #15,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\. guest is at rank #21,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɛst\.

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 37278, this pair ranks #263,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ghost vs guest

Shared letters: gst. Private to "ghost": ho. Private to "guest": eu.

"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "guest" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ghostgghost · ghhost · ghosst · ghostt · ghots · ghsot · gohst · hgost
  • guestgeust · gguest · guesst · guestt · guets · guset · ugest

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ghost" for "guest" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɔst\ versus \ɡɛst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ghost" or "guest" show up more?
"ghost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,636 in our French list, against #21,642 for "guest". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "ghost" and "guest" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ghost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ghost" and "guest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Geert vs guest". 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 #263,606 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