hostievshotteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,989
“hostie” frequency rank
#39,336
“hotte” frequency rank
68325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hostie hotte
Definition Pain très mince et sans levain (azyme) que le prêtre offre et consacre à la messe. Sorte de panier, ouvrage du vannier, qui a des bretelles et qu’on porte sur le dos.

Where the eye mixes hostie and hotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hostie runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against hotte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
hostie
5 ch
hotte

Look-alike desk: hostie vs hotte

A purely visual mix-up. hostie (^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\) and hotte (^((h aspiré))\ɔt\) 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 68325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hostie is recorded at frequency rank #28,989, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\. hotte is at rank #39,336, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔt\.

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 68325, this pair ranks #59,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hostie vs hotte

Shared letters: ehot. Private to "hostie": is. Private to "hotte": -.

"hostie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "hotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hostie ← hhostie · hosite · hosstie · hostei · hosttie · hotsie · hsotie · ohstie
  • hotte ← hhotte · hotet · htote · ohtte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hostie" for "hotte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hostie" or "hotte"?
"hostie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,989 in our French list, against #39,336 for "hotte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "hostie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hostie" and "hotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hotte vs huttes". 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 #59,634 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