Which to use
“quatorzième” and “quatrième” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,347
- “quatorzième” frequency rank
- #1,751
- “quatrième” frequency rank
- 26098
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quatorzième | quatrième |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Adjectif ordinal, correspondant au cardinal quatorze. | Adjectif ordinal correspondant au nombre quatre. |
Where the eye mixes quatorzième and quatrième
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. quatorzième runs 11 letters (CVVCVCCVVCV) against quatrième's 9 (CVVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses quatorzième with quatrième
A purely visual mix-up. quatorzième (\ka.tɔʁ.zjɛm\) and quatrième (\ka.tʁi.jɛm\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quatorzième is recorded at frequency rank #24,347, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.tɔʁ.zjɛm\. quatrième is at rank #1,751, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.tʁi.jɛm\.
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 26098, this pair ranks #337,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quatorzième vs quatrième
Shared letters: aeimqrtuè. Private to "quatorzième": oz. Private to "quatrième": -.
"quatorzième" · 11 letters · shape CVVCVCCVVCV · "quatrième" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "quatorzième" and "quatrième" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "quatorzième" vs "quatrième" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "quatorzième" and "quatrième" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "quatorzième" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quatrième" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #337,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quatorzième" and "quatrième" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quatrième vs quatrièmes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #337,125 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.