Which to use
“hôtels” and “hôtesse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,770
- “hôtels” frequency rank
- #17,448
- “hôtesse” frequency rank
- 23218
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hôtels | hôtesse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de hôtel. | Femme qui reçoit dans sa demeure ou un lieu dont elle est responsable. |
Where the eye mixes hôtels and hôtesse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hôtels runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against hôtesse's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between hôtels and hôtesse
A purely visual mix-up. hôtels (^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl\) and hôtesse (^((h muet))\o.tɛs\) 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 23218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hôtels is recorded at frequency rank #5,770, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔ.tɛl\. hôtesse is at rank #17,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\o.tɛs\.
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 23218, this pair ranks #353,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hôtels vs hôtesse
Shared letters: ehstô. Private to "hôtels": l. Private to "hôtesse": -.
"hôtels" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "hôtesse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hôtels" and "hôtesse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "hôtels" vs "hôtesse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hôtels" and "hôtesse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hôtels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hôtesse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #353,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hôtels" and "hôtesse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haters vs hôtels". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #353,742 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.