pitchvspitiéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,719
“pitch” frequency rank
#3,157
“pitié” frequency rank
27876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pitch pitié
Definition Angle mesuré entre la direction d’un plan (de stratification par exemple) et une droite (linéation) de ce plan. Sentiment douloureux face aux souffrances d’autrui, que l'on ne connaît ou partage pas soi-même.

Where the eye mixes pitch and pitié

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pitch
5 ch
pitié

Visual trap between pitch and pitié

A purely visual mix-up. pitch (\pitʃ\) and pitié (\pi.tje\) 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 27876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pitch is recorded at frequency rank #24,719, classified as anoun, pronounced \pitʃ\. pitié is at rank #3,157, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.tje\.

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 27876, this pair ranks #326,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pitch vs pitié

Shared letters: ipt. Private to "pitch": ch. Private to "pitié": é.

"pitch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pitié" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pitchiptch · picth · pitcch · pitchh · pithc · pittch · ppitch · ptich

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pitch" and "pitié" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pitʃ\ versus \pi.tje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pitch" or "pitié"?
"pitié" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,157 in our French list, against #24,719 for "pitch". 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 "pitch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pitié" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #326,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pitch" and "pitié" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pico vs pitch". 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 #326,223 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