incitevsinvitéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: incite is a verb, invitée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“incite” is a verb and “invitée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,178
“incite” frequency rank
#6,838
“invitée” frequency rank
17016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incite invitée
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de inciter. Celle qui est invitée.

Where the eye mixes incite and invitée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. incite runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against invitée's 7 (VCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
incite
7 ch
invitée

Why the eye confuses incite with invitée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: incite is \ɛ̃.sit\ while invitée is \ɛ̃.vi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17016, 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\. invitée is at rank #6,838, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.vi.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 17016, this pair ranks #385,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of incite vs invitée

Shared letters: eint. Private to "incite": c. Private to "invitée": vé.

"incite" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "invitée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incite ← icnite · inccite · inciet · incitte · inctie · inicte · inncite · nicite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "incite" and "invitée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "incite" is a verb and "invitée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "incite" or "invitée"?
"invitée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,838 in our French list, against #10,178 for "incite". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "invitée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incite" and "invitée" 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 #385,186 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