saturévsspatuleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: saturé is a adjective, spatule is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“saturé” is an adjective and “spatule” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,873
“saturé” frequency rank
#41,544
“spatule” frequency rank
60417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saturé spatule
Definition Qui a atteint la saturation, qui ne peut plus rien accepter de plus. Baguette de bois, de métal, d’ivoire, etc., élargie et aplatie à un bout, dont on se sert en pharmacie et en chimie.

Where the eye mixes saturé and spatule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. saturé runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against spatule's 7 (CCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
saturé
7 ch
spatule

Why the eye confuses saturé with spatule

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saturé is \sa.ty.ʁe\ while spatule is \spa.tyl\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saturé is recorded at frequency rank #18,873, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.ty.ʁe\. spatule is at rank #41,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spa.tyl\.

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 60417, this pair ranks #97,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saturé vs spatule

Shared letters: astu. Private to "saturé": ré. Private to "spatule": elp.

"saturé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "spatule" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spatule ← psatule · saptule · spatlue · spattule · spatuel · spatulle · spautle · sppatule

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "saturé" and "spatule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saturé" is an adjective and "spatule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "saturé" vs "spatule" - which ranks higher?
"saturé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,873 in our French list, against #41,544 for "spatule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "saturé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spatule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saturé" and "spatule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saoulé vs spatule". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #97,709 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