prévaluvsprévautWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,850
“prévalu” frequency rank
#22,046
“prévaut” frequency rank
55896
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prévalu prévaut
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de prévaloir. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de prévaloir.

Where the eye mixes prévalu and prévaut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
prévalu
7 ch
prévaut

Visual trap between prévalu and prévaut

A purely visual mix-up. prévalu (\pʁe.va.ly\) and prévaut (\pʁe.vo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prévalu is recorded at frequency rank #33,850, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.va.ly\. prévaut is at rank #22,046, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.vo\.

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 55896, this pair ranks #124,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prévalu vs prévaut

Shared letters: apruvé. Private to "prévalu": l. Private to "prévaut": t.

"prévalu" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "prévaut" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prévalu" for "prévaut" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁe.va.ly\ versus \pʁe.vo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "prévalu" vs "prévaut" - which ranks higher?
"prévaut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,046 in our French list, against #33,850 for "prévalu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "prévalu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prévaut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prévalu" and "prévaut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "préau vs prévalu". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #124,496 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