hautevsheureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#790
“haute” frequency rank
#346
“heure” frequency rank
1136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature haute heure
Definition Haute société ; classe sociale supérieure ; élite sociale. Unité de mesure du temps, compatible avec le Système international, dérivée de la seconde, dont le symbole est h. 1 heure = 60 minutes = 3600 secondes.

Where the eye mixes haute and heure

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

5 ch
haute
5 ch
heure

Look-alike desk: haute vs heure

A purely visual mix-up. haute (^((h aspiré))\ot\) and heure (^((h muet))\œʁ\) 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 1136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

haute is recorded at frequency rank #790, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ot\. heure is at rank #346, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\œʁ\.

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 1136, this pair ranks #438,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of haute vs heure

Shared letters: ehu. Private to "haute": at. Private to "heure": r.

"haute" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "heure" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hauteahute · hatue · hauet · hautte · hhaute · huate
  • heureehure · herue · heuer · heurre · hheure · huere

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "haute" and "heure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\ot\ versus ^((h muet))\œʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "haute" vs "heure" - which ranks higher?
"heure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #346 in our French list, against #790 for "haute". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "haute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,574 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "haute" and "heure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedge vs heure". 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 #438,574 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