noyadevsnoyéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,213
“noyade” frequency rank
#15,949
“noyé” frequency rank
36162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature noyade noyé
Definition Action de noyer une personne. Il se dit surtout en ce sens, au pluriel, en parlant des exécutions ordonnées à Nantes en 1793 par le représentant Carrier. Personne qui se noie ou qui a péri par noyade.

Where the eye mixes noyade and noyé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. noyade runs 6 letters (CVVVCV) against noyé's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
noyade
4 ch
noyé

Look-alike desk: noyade vs noyé

A purely visual mix-up. noyade (\nwa.jad\) and noyé (\nwa.je\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

noyade is recorded at frequency rank #20,213, classified as anoun, pronounced \nwa.jad\. noyé is at rank #15,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \nwa.je\.

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 36162, this pair ranks #271,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of noyade vs noyé

Shared letters: noy. Private to "noyade": ade. Private to "noyé": é.

"noyade" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV  ·  "noyé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • noyadennoyade · noayde · noyadde · noyaed · noydae · noyyade · nyoade · onyade

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "noyade" and "noyé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\nwa.jad\ versus \nwa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "noyade" or "noyé"?
"noyé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,949 in our French list, against #20,213 for "noyade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "noyade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "noyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,579 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "noyade" and "noyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "noués vs noyé". 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 #271,579 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