Which to use
“hôte” and “hôtels” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,098
- “hôte” frequency rank
- #5,770
- “hôtels” frequency rank
- 11868
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hôte | hôtels |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui donne l’hospitalité par humanité, par amitié, par bienveillance. | Pluriel de hôtel. |
Where the eye mixes hôte and hôtels
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hôte runs 4 letters (CVCV) against hôtels's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hôte with hôtels
A purely visual mix-up. hôte (^((h muet))\ot\) and hôtels (^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “hôte” sits inside “hôtels”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hôte is recorded at frequency rank #6,098, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ot\. hôtels is at rank #5,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl\.
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 11868, this pair ranks #407,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hôte vs hôtels
Shared letters: ehtô. Private to "hôte": -. Private to "hôtels": ls.
"hôte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "hôtels" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hôte" for "hôtels" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hôte" vs "hôtels" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hôte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hôtels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hôte" and "hôtels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hatem vs hôte". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #407,524 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.