Which to use
“historique” and “hystérique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,115
- “historique” frequency rank
- #17,155
- “hystérique” frequency rank
- 18270
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | historique | hystérique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif à l’histoire. | Qui a rapport à l’hystérie. |
Where the eye mixes historique and hystérique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. historique and hystérique follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: historique vs hystérique
A purely visual mix-up. historique (\is.tɔ.ʁik\) and hystérique (\is.te.ʁik\) 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 18270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
historique is recorded at frequency rank #1,115, classified as anadj, pronounced \is.tɔ.ʁik\. hystérique is at rank #17,155, tagged as anadj, pronounced \is.te.ʁik\.
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 18270, this pair ranks #379,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of historique vs hystérique
Shared letters: ehiqrstu. Private to "historique": o. Private to "hystérique": yé.
"historique" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV · "hystérique" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- historique ← hhistorique · hisotrique · hisstorique · histoirque · historiqeu · historiqque · historiuqe · historqiue
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "historique" for "hystérique" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "historique" or "hystérique" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "historique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hystérique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "historique" and "hystérique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hystérique vs hystériques". 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 #379,186 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.