Which to use
“septante” and “sortante” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,008
- “septante” frequency rank
- #30,377
- “sortante” frequency rank
- 70385
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | septante | sortante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Soixante-neuf plus un, soit sept fois dix, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 70. | Féminin singulier de l’adjectif sortant. |
Where the eye mixes septante and sortante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. septante and sortante follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between septante and sortante
A purely visual mix-up. septante (\sɛp.tɑ̃t\) and sortante (\sɔʁ.tɑ̃t\) 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 70385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
septante is recorded at frequency rank #40,008, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɛp.tɑ̃t\. sortante is at rank #30,377, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɑ̃t\.
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 70385, this pair ranks #51,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of septante vs sortante
Shared letters: aenst. Private to "septante": p. Private to "sortante": or.
"septante" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "sortante" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "septante" for "sortante" ever safe?
Frequency check: "septante" vs "sortante" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "septante" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sortante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,498 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "septante" and "sortante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortante vs soutane". 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 #51,498 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.