Which to use
“postulant” and “postulat” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,962
- “postulant” frequency rank
- #22,038
- “postulat” frequency rank
- 69000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | postulant | postulat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui sollicite, qui fait des démarches pour obtenir quelque chose. | Proposition que le géomètre demande qu’on lui accorde au commencement d’une discussion, bien qu’elle ne soit ni démontrée ni évidente, parce qu’il ne voit pas d’autre principe auquel il puisse rattacher une vérité ou des vérités qu’on ne saurait mettre en doute. Autrement dit une proposition première indémontrable ou indémontrée, et que le mathématicien demande au lecteur d’accepter. Le postulat n’est pas forcément évident, contrairement à l’axiome. |
Where the eye mixes postulant and postulat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses postulant with postulat
A purely visual mix-up. postulant (\pɔs.ty.lɑ̃\) and postulat (\pɔs.ty.la\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
postulant is recorded at frequency rank #46,962, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.ty.lɑ̃\. postulat is at rank #22,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.ty.la\.
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 69000, this pair ranks #56,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of postulant vs postulat
Shared letters: alopstu. Private to "postulant": n. Private to "postulat": -.
"postulant" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "postulat" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "postulant" and "postulat" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "postulant" or "postulat" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "postulant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "postulat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "postulant" and "postulat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postulant vs postulants". 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 #56,888 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.