postulatvspostulerConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#22,038
“postulat” frequency rank
#14,763
“postuler” frequency rank
36801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature postulat postuler
Definition 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. Solliciter, faire des démarches pour obtenir quelque chose, présenter sa candidature.

Where the eye mixes postulat and postuler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. postulat and postuler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
postulat
8 ch
postuler

Visual trap between postulat and postuler

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: postulat is \pɔs.ty.la\ while postuler is \pɔs.ty.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

postulat is recorded at frequency rank #22,038, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔs.ty.la\. postuler is at rank #14,763, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɔs.ty.le\.

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 36801, this pair ranks #267,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of postulat vs postuler

Shared letters: lopstu. Private to "postulat": a. Private to "postuler": er.

"postulat" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "postuler" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postulat ← opstulat · posstulat · postluat · posttulat · postualt · postulatt · postullat · postulta
  • postuler ← opstuler · posstuler · postluer · posttuler · postuelr · postulerr · postuller · postulre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "postulat" for "postuler" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "postulat" is a noun and "postuler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "postulat" or "postuler"?
"postuler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,763 in our French list, against #22,038 for "postulat". 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 "postulat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postuler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "postulat" and "postuler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postulants vs postulat". 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 #267,026 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