Which to use
“sabotage” is a noun and “saboté” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,589
- “sabotage” frequency rank
- #47,031
- “saboté” frequency rank
- 65620
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sabotage | saboté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de saboter, de détruire le travail d’autrui délibérément. | Participe passé masculin singulier de saboter. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sabotage and saboté apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
sabotage and saboté form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sabotage is recorded at frequency rank #18,589, classified as anoun, pronounced \sa.bɔ.taʒ\. saboté is at rank #47,031, tagged as averb, pronounced \sa.bɔ.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 65620, this pair ranks #71,529 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sabotage" and "saboté" be used interchangeably?
Remembering sabotage vs saboté
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “sabotage”; for a verb, it's “saboté”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sabotage” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable