intervsintraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,928
“inter” frequency rank
#10,341
“intra” frequency rank
14269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inter intra
Definition Utilisé autrefois pour désigner le réseau téléphonique interurbain. Examen périodique, qui a lieu vers le milieu du semestre universitaire.

Where the eye mixes inter and intra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
inter
5 ch
intra

Visual trap between inter and intra

A purely visual mix-up. inter (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ\) and intra (\ɛ̃.tʁɑ\) 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 14269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inter is recorded at frequency rank #3,928, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ\. intra is at rank #10,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tʁɑ\.

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 14269, this pair ranks #397,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of inter vs intra

Shared letters: inrt. Private to "inter": e. Private to "intra": a.

"inter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "intra" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interinetr · innter · interr · intre · intter · itner · niter
  • intrainntra · inrta · intar · intrra · inttra · itnra · nitra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inter" and "intra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ\ versus \ɛ̃.tʁɑ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "inter" or "intra" show up more?
"inter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,928 in our French list, against #10,341 for "intra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "inter" and "intra" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inter" and "intra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "instru vs intra". 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 #397,428 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