préceptevsprécitéConfusable pair

Quick tell: précepte is a noun, précité is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“précepte” is a noun and “précité” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,536
“précepte” frequency rank
#41,976
“précité” frequency rank
89512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature précepte précité
Definition Règle ; leçon ; enseignement. Qui est cité précédemment.

Where the eye mixes précepte and précité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
précepte
7 ch
précité

Look-alike desk: précepte vs précité

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: précepte is \pʁe.sɛpt\ while précité is \pʁe.si.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89512, 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\. précité is at rank #41,976, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.si.te\.

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 89512, this pair ranks #5,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précepte vs précité

Shared letters: cprté. Private to "précepte": e. Private to "précité": i.

"précepte" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "précité" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "précepte" for "précité" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "précepte" is a noun and "précité" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "précepte" vs "précité" - which ranks higher?
"précité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,976 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.

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 "précepte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "précité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "précepte" and "précité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précepte vs préfète". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,708 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