Which to use
“pétasse” and “potasse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,097
- “pétasse” frequency rank
- #42,536
- “potasse” frequency rank
- 67633
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pétasse | potasse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prostituée. | Potasse caustique ; matière solide, blanche, très caustique, soluble dans l’eau. Hydroxyde de potassium (KOH). |
Where the eye mixes pétasse and potasse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pétasse and potasse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between pétasse and potasse
A purely visual mix-up. pétasse (\pe.tas\) and potasse (\pɔ.tas\) 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 a single letter - é in “pétasse” becomes o in “potasse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67633, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pétasse is recorded at frequency rank #25,097, classified as anoun, pronounced \pe.tas\. potasse is at rank #42,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.tas\.
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 67633, this pair ranks #62,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pétasse vs potasse
Shared letters: aepst. Private to "pétasse": é. Private to "potasse": o.
"pétasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "potasse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- potasse ← optasse · poatsse · potase · potases · potsase · pottasse · ppotasse · ptoasse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pétasse" for "potasse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "pétasse" vs "potasse" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pétasse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #62,559 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pétasse" and "potasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "potache vs potasse". 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 #62,559 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.