Which to use
“harcelée” and “harceler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,719
- “harcelée” frequency rank
- #13,809
- “harceler” frequency rank
- 47528
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harcelée | harceler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de harceler. | Tourmenter une personne, ou un animal, en le poursuivant sans relâche, en le malmenant. |
Where the eye mixes harcelée and harceler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. harcelée (CVCCVCVV) and harceler (CVCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses harcelée with harceler
A purely visual mix-up. harcelée (\aʁ.sə.le\) and harceler (^((h aspiré))\aʁ.sə.le\) 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 47528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harcelée is recorded at frequency rank #33,719, classified as averb, pronounced \aʁ.sə.le\. harceler is at rank #13,809, tagged as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.sə.le\.
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 47528, this pair ranks #186,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of harcelée vs harceler
Shared letters: acehlr. Private to "harcelée": é. Private to "harceler": -.
"harcelée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV · "harceler" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- harceler ← ahrceler · hacreler · harcceler · harceelr · harcelerr · harceller · harcelre · harcleer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harcelée" for "harceler" ever safe?
Frequency check: "harcelée" vs "harceler" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "harcelée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "harceler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harcelée" and "harceler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harcelée vs harcelés". 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 #186,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.