Which to use
“hotte” and “houle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,336
- “hotte” frequency rank
- #24,236
- “houle” frequency rank
- 63572
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hotte | houle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de panier, ouvrage du vannier, qui a des bretelles et qu’on porte sur le dos. | Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume. |
Where the eye mixes hotte and houle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hotte (CVCCV) and houle (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: hotte vs houle
A purely visual mix-up. hotte (^((h aspiré))\ɔt\) and houle (^((h aspiré))\ul\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hotte is recorded at frequency rank #39,336, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔt\. houle is at rank #24,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ul\.
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 63572, this pair ranks #81,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hotte vs houle
Shared letters: eho. Private to "hotte": t. Private to "houle": lu.
"hotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "houle" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hotte" for "houle" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hotte" vs "houle" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hotte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hotte" and "houle" 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 #81,308 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.