héritéevshésiteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,209
“héritée” frequency rank
#3,855
“hésite” frequency rank
34064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature héritée hésite
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de hériter. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de hésiter.

Where the eye mixes héritée and hésite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. héritée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against hésite's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
héritée
6 ch
hésite

Look-alike desk: héritée vs hésite

A purely visual mix-up. héritée (\e.ʁi.te\) and hésite (^((h muet))\e.zit\) 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 34064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

héritée is recorded at frequency rank #30,209, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ʁi.te\. hésite is at rank #3,855, tagged as averb, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.zit\.

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 34064, this pair ranks #286,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of héritée vs hésite

Shared letters: ehité. Private to "héritée": r. Private to "hésite": s.

"héritée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "hésite" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "héritée" for "hésite" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʁi.te\ versus ^((h muet))\e.zit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "héritée" vs "hésite" - which ranks higher?
"hésite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,855 in our French list, against #30,209 for "héritée". 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 "héritée" and "hésite" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "héritée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hésite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,413 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "héritée" and "hésite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "héritée vs hermite". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #286,413 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