précipitentvsprécipitésTell them apart

Quick tell: précipitent is a verb, précipités is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“précipitent” is a verb and “précipités” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,696
“précipitent” frequency rank
#36,114
“précipités” frequency rank
70810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature précipitent précipités
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de précipiter. Masculin pluriel de précipité.

Where the eye mixes précipitent and précipités

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. précipitent runs 11 letters (CCVCVCVCVCC) against précipités's 10 (CCVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
précipitent
10 ch
précipités

Look-alike desk: précipitent vs précipités

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: précipitent is \pʁe.si.pit\ while précipités is \pʁe.si.pi.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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

précipitent is recorded at frequency rank #34,696, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.si.pit\. précipités is at rank #36,114, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.si.pi.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 70810, this pair ranks #49,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précipitent vs précipités

Shared letters: ciprté. Private to "précipitent": en. Private to "précipités": s.

"précipitent" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVCC  ·  "précipités" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "précipitent" for "précipités" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "précipitent" is a verb and "précipités" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "précipitent" vs "précipités" - which ranks higher?
"précipitent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,696 in our French list, against #36,114 for "précipités". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "précipitent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "précipités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "précipitent" and "précipités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précipita vs précipités". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,920 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