Which to use
“honte” and “hostie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,083
- “honte” frequency rank
- #28,989
- “hostie” frequency rank
- 31072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | honte | hostie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Déshonneur, opprobre, humiliation (ce qui est le sens étymologique et ancien). | Pain très mince et sans levain (azyme) que le prêtre offre et consacre à la messe. |
Where the eye mixes honte and hostie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. honte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against hostie's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: honte vs hostie
A purely visual mix-up. honte (^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃t\) and hostie (^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\) 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 31072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
honte is recorded at frequency rank #2,083, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃t\. hostie is at rank #28,989, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\.
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 31072, this pair ranks #306,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of honte vs hostie
Shared letters: ehot. Private to "honte": n. Private to "hostie": is.
"honte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hostie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "honte" for "hostie" ever safe?
Which is more common, "honte" or "hostie"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "honte" and "hostie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "honte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hostie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "honte" and "hostie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hostel vs hostie". 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 #306,168 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.