Which to use
“hôte” is a noun and “hutu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,098
- “hôte” frequency rank
- #42,926
- “hutu” frequency rank
- 49024
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hôte | hutu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui donne l’hospitalité par humanité, par amitié, par bienveillance. | Relatif aux Hutus, peuple d’Afrique centrale majoritaire au Rwanda et au Burundi. |
Where the eye mixes hôte and hutu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hôte and hutu follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hôte with hutu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hôte is ^((h muet))\ot\ while hutu is \u.tu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49024, 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\. hutu is at rank #42,926, tagged as anadj, pronounced \u.tu\.
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 49024, this pair ranks #174,100 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hôte vs hutu
Shared letters: ht. Private to "hôte": eô. Private to "hutu": u.
"hôte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "hutu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- hutu ← hhutu · htuu · huttu · huut · uhtu
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hôte" and "hutu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "hôte" vs "hutu" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hôte" and "hutu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hôte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hutu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,100 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hôte" and "hutu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hurt vs hutu". 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 #174,100 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.