Which to use
“harcèlent” and “harceler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,918
- “harcèlent” frequency rank
- #13,809
- “harceler” frequency rank
- 56727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harcèlent | harceler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de harceler. | Tourmenter une personne, ou un animal, en le poursuivant sans relâche, en le malmenant. |
Where the eye mixes harcèlent and harceler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. harcèlent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against harceler's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between harcèlent and harceler
A purely visual mix-up. harcèlent (^((h aspiré))\aʁ.sɛl\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harcèlent is recorded at frequency rank #42,918, classified as averb, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.sɛl\. 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 56727, this pair ranks #119,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of harcèlent vs harceler
Shared letters: acehlr. Private to "harcèlent": ntè. Private to "harceler": -.
"harcèlent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "harceler" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- harceler ← ahrceler · hacreler · harcceler · harceelr · harcelerr · harceller · harcelre · harcleer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harcèlent" for "harceler" ever safe?
Frequency check: "harcèlent" vs "harceler" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "harcèlent" and "harceler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "harcèlent" 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 #119,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harcèlent" and "harceler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harcelait vs harcèlent". 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 #119,284 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.