postérieur vs postérieure

Which to use

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

#21,730
“postérieur” frequency rank: #20,528
“postérieure” frequency rank: 42258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	postérieur	postérieure
Definition	Qui suit, qui est après dans l’ordre des temps.	Féminin singulier de postérieur.

Same sound, different letters: postérieur vs postérieure

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. postérieur runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVVVC) against postérieure's 11 (CVCCVCVVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch

postérieur

11 ch

postérieure

Same sound, different spelling - postérieur / postérieure

This is the hard kind. postérieur and postérieure are pronounced identically (\pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “postérieur” sits inside “postérieure”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

postérieur is recorded at frequency rank #21,730, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\. postérieure is at rank #20,528, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\.

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 42258, this pair ranks #226,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of postérieur vs postérieure

Shared letters: eioprstué. Private to "postérieur": -. Private to "postérieure": -.

"postérieur" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVC · "postérieure" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "postérieur" and "postérieure" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "postérieur" or "postérieure"?

"postérieure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,528 in our French list, against #21,730 for "postérieur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"postérieur" and "postérieure" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

Full dictionary entry for "postérieur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "postérieure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #226,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"postérieur" and "postérieure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postérieur vs postérieurs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #226,979 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.