préciséevsprécitéeConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#27,200
“précisée” frequency rank
#44,649
“précitée” frequency rank
71849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature précisée précitée
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de préciser. Féminin singulier de précité.

Where the eye mixes précisée and précitée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. précisée and précitée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
précisée
8 ch
précitée

Visual trap between précisée and précitée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: précisée is \pʁe.si.ze\ while précitée is \pʁe.si.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “précisée” becomes t in “précitée”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

précisée is recorded at frequency rank #27,200, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.si.ze\. précitée is at rank #44,649, 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 71849, this pair ranks #46,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précisée vs précitée

Shared letters: ceipré. Private to "précisée": s. Private to "précitée": t.

"précisée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV  ·  "précitée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "précisée" and "précitée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "précisée" is a verb and "précitée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "précisée" or "précitée"?
"précisée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,200 in our French list, against #44,649 for "précitée". 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 "précisée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "précitée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "précisée" and "précitée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "précité vs précitée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #46,057 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