PhobievsprobitéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,558
“Phobie” frequency rank
#22,985
“probité” frequency rank
41543
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Phobie probité
Definition Phobie. Qualité d’une personne probe.

Where the eye mixes Phobie and probité

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

6 ch
Phobie
7 ch
probité

Why the eye confuses Phobie with probité

A purely visual mix-up. Phobie (\foˈbiː\) and probité (\pʁɔ.bi.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Phobie is recorded at frequency rank #18,558, classified as anoun, pronounced \foˈbiː\. probité is at rank #22,985, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.bi.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 41543, this pair ranks #232,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Phobie vs probité

Shared letters: biop. Private to "Phobie": eh. Private to "probité": rté.

"Phobie" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "probité" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Phobiehpobie · phboie · phhobie · phobbie · phobei · phoibe · pohbie · pphobie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Phobie" and "probité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\foˈbiː\ versus \pʁɔ.bi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Phobie" vs "probité" - which ranks higher?
"Phobie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,558 in our French list, against #22,985 for "probité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Phobie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "probité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Phobie" and "probité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "probante vs probité". 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 #232,331 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