postervspotterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,385
“poster” frequency rank
#8,014
“potter” frequency rank
13399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poster potter
Definition Affiche dont la fonction est essentiellement décorative, qui n’est pas ou a cessé d’être publicitaire. Potier.

Where the eye mixes poster and potter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poster and potter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
poster
6 ch
potter

Visual trap between poster and potter

A purely visual mix-up. poster (\pɔs.tɛʁ\) and potter (\ˈpɒt.əʳ\) 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 - s in “poster” becomes t in “potter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poster is recorded at frequency rank #5,385, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.tɛʁ\. potter is at rank #8,014, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɒt.əʳ\.

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 13399, this pair ranks #401,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poster vs potter

Shared letters: eoprt. Private to "poster": s. Private to "potter": -.

"poster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "potter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • posteropster · posetr · posster · posterr · postre · postter · potser · pposter
  • potteroptter · poter · potetr · potterr · pottre · ppotter · ptoter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "poster" and "potter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɔs.tɛʁ\ versus \ˈpɒt.əʳ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poster" vs "potter" - which ranks higher?
"poster" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,385 in our French list, against #8,014 for "potter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poster" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "potter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poster" and "potter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pontet vs potter". 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 #401,176 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