planervsplanèteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: planer is a verb, planète is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“planer” is a verb and “planète” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,368
“planer” frequency rank
#1,492
“planète” frequency rank
20860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature planer planète
Definition Se soutenir en l’air, les ailes étendues et immobiles, en parlant des oiseaux. Corps céleste plutôt sphérique plus gros qu’un astéroïde, ne produisant pas de lumière propre, en orbite autour d’une ou plusieurs étoiles.

Where the eye mixes planer and planète

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. planer runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against planète's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
planer
7 ch
planète

Look-alike desk: planer vs planète

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: planer is \pla.ne\ while planète is \pla.nɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

planer is recorded at frequency rank #19,368, classified as averb, pronounced \pla.ne\. planète is at rank #1,492, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pla.nɛt\.

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 20860, this pair ranks #366,115 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of planer vs planète

Shared letters: aelnp. Private to "planer": r. Private to "planète": tè.

"planer" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "planète" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • planer ← lpaner · palner · plaenr · planerr · planner · planre · pllaner · plnaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "planer" and "planète" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "planer" is a verb and "planète" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "planer" or "planète" show up more?
"planète" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,492 in our French list, against #19,368 for "planer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "planer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "planète" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,115 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "planer" and "planète" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Panzer vs planer". 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 #366,115 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