Which to use
“patente” and “paternité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,949
- “patente” frequency rank
- #13,860
- “paternité” frequency rank
- 46809
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patente | paternité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Brevet émanant d’une autorité établissant un droit, un titre ou un privilège. | État, qualité de père. |
Where the eye mixes patente and paternité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. patente runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against paternité's 9 (CVCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between patente and paternité
A purely visual mix-up. patente (\pa.tɑ̃t\) and paternité (\pa.tɛʁ.ni.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46809, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patente is recorded at frequency rank #32,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɑ̃t\. paternité is at rank #13,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɛʁ.ni.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 46809, this pair ranks #191,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of patente vs paternité
Shared letters: aenpt. Private to "patente": -. Private to "paternité": iré.
"patente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "paternité" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- patente ← aptente · paetnte · patenet · patennte · patentte · patetne · patnete · pattente
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "patente" and "paternité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "patente" or "paternité" show up more?
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 "patente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paternité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patente" and "paternité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Papeete vs patente". 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 #191,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.