Which to use
“portière” and “portique” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,241
- “portière” frequency rank
- #19,110
- “portique” frequency rank
- 39351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portière | portique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme dont la profession est de garder une porte d’entrée. | Galerie ouverte dont la voûte ou le plafond sont soutenus par des colonnes, par des arcades. |
Where the eye mixes portière and portique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. portière (CVCCVVCV) and portique (CVCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between portière and portique
A purely visual mix-up. portière (\pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\) and portique (\pɔʁ.tik\) 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 39351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portière is recorded at frequency rank #20,241, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tjɛʁ\. portique is at rank #19,110, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔʁ.tik\.
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 39351, this pair ranks #248,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portière vs portique
Shared letters: eioprt. Private to "portière": è. Private to "portique": qu.
"portière" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV · "portique" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- portique ← oprtique · poritque · porrtique · portiqeu · portiqque · portiuqe · portqiue · porttique
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portière" for "portique" ever safe?
Which is more common, "portière" or "portique"?
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 "portière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "portique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #248,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portière" and "portique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "portière vs potiers". 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 #248,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.