héritiervshéritièreTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,096
“héritier” frequency rank
#15,161
“héritière” frequency rank
21257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature héritier héritière
Definition Celui que la loi appelle à recueillir une succession. Celle que la loi appelle à recueillir une succession.

Where the eye mixes héritier and héritière

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
héritier
9 ch
héritière

Look-alike desk: héritier vs héritière

A purely visual mix-up. héritier (\e.ʁi.tje\) and héritière (\e.ʁi.tjɛʁ\) 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 21257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

héritier is recorded at frequency rank #6,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ʁi.tje\. héritière is at rank #15,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ʁi.tjɛʁ\.

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 21257, this pair ranks #364,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of héritier vs héritière

Shared letters: ehirté. Private to "héritier": -. Private to "héritière": è.

"héritier" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "héritière" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "héritier" and "héritière" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʁi.tje\ versus \e.ʁi.tjɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "héritier" vs "héritière" - which ranks higher?
"héritier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,096 in our French list, against #15,161 for "héritière". 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 "héritier" and "héritière" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "héritier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "héritière" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "héritier" and "héritière" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "héritées vs héritier". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #364,105 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