Which to use
“incite” and “inciter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,178
- “incite” frequency rank
- #8,726
- “inciter” frequency rank
- 18904
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | incite | inciter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de inciter. | Pousser, porter vivement à (une action, une attitude, un comportement, un état). |
Where the eye mixes incite and inciter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. incite runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against inciter's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses incite with inciter
A purely visual mix-up. incite (\ɛ̃.sit\) and inciter (\ɛ̃.si.te\) 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 extra letter(s) - “incite” sits inside “inciter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
incite is recorded at frequency rank #10,178, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.sit\. inciter is at rank #8,726, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.te\.
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 18904, this pair ranks #376,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of incite vs inciter
Shared letters: ceint. Private to "incite": -. Private to "inciter": r.
"incite" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "inciter" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "incite" and "inciter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "incite" or "inciter" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "incite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inciter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #376,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "incite" and "inciter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incite vs income". 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 #376,013 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.