héritéevshésiterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,209
“héritée” frequency rank
#8,722
“hésiter” frequency rank
38931
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature héritée hésiter
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de hériter. Être incertain, indécis sur le parti, sur la résolution que l’on doit prendre.

Where the eye mixes héritée and hésiter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. héritée (CVCVCVV) and hésiter (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
héritée
7 ch
hésiter

Visual trap between héritée and hésiter

A purely visual mix-up. héritée (\e.ʁi.te\) and hésiter (^((h muet))\e.zi.te\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38931, 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\. hésiter is at rank #8,722, tagged as averb, pronounced ^((h muet))\e.zi.te\.

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 38931, this pair ranks #251,765 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of héritée vs hésiter

Shared letters: ehirté. Private to "héritée": -. Private to "hésiter": s.

"héritée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "hésiter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "héritée" and "hésiter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʁi.te\ versus ^((h muet))\e.zi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "héritée" vs "hésiter" - which ranks higher?
"hésiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,722 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "héritée" and "hésiter" 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 "hésiter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #251,765 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "héritée" and "hésiter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "héritée vs hermite". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #251,765 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