hôtesvshotteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,560
“hôtes” frequency rank
#39,336
“hotte” frequency rank
47896
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hôtes hotte
Definition Pluriel de hôte. Sorte de panier, ouvrage du vannier, qui a des bretelles et qu’on porte sur le dos.

Where the eye mixes hôtes and hotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hôtes (CVCVC) and hotte (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
hôtes
5 ch
hotte

Visual trap between hôtes and hotte

A purely visual mix-up. hôtes (^((h muet))\ot\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hôtes is recorded at frequency rank #8,560, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ot\. 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 47896, this pair ranks #183,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hôtes vs hotte

Shared letters: eht. Private to "hôtes": sô. Private to "hotte": o.

"hôtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hotte ← hhotte · hotet · htote · ohtte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hôtes" for "hotte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h muet))\ot\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hôtes" or "hotte"?
"hôtes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,560 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hôtes" 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 #183,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hôtes" 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 #183,296 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