préceptevsprécepteurWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,536
“précepte” frequency rank
#29,091
“précepteur” frequency rank
76627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature précepte précepteur
Definition Règle ; leçon ; enseignement. Celui qui est chargé de l’instruction et de l’éducation d’un enfant, d’un jeune homme.

Where the eye mixes précepte and précepteur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. précepte runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against précepteur's 10 (CCVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
précepte
10 ch
précepteur

Why the eye confuses précepte with précepteur

A purely visual mix-up. précepte (\pʁe.sɛpt\) and précepteur (\pʁe.sɛp.tœʁ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “précepte” sits inside “précepteur”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

précepte is recorded at frequency rank #47,536, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.sɛpt\. précepteur is at rank #29,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁe.sɛp.tœʁ\.

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 76627, this pair ranks #30,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précepte vs précepteur

Shared letters: ceprté. Private to "précepte": -. Private to "précepteur": u.

"précepte" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "précepteur" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "précepte" for "précepteur" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁe.sɛpt\ versus \pʁe.sɛp.tœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "précepte" vs "précepteur" - which ranks higher?
"précepteur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,091 in our French list, against #47,536 for "précepte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "précepte" and "précepteur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "précepte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "précepteur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "précepte" and "précepteur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précepte vs précité". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,592 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