Which to use
“serve” and “sorte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,566
- “serve” frequency rank
- #761
- “sorte” frequency rank
- 15327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | serve | sorte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme attachée au domaine qu’elle cultive moyennant redevance au seigneur qui en est le propriétaire. | Espèce ; genre. |
Where the eye mixes serve and sorte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between serve and sorte
A purely visual mix-up. serve (\sɛʁv\) and sorte (\sɔʁt\) 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 15327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
serve is recorded at frequency rank #14,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁv\. sorte is at rank #761, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔʁt\.
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 15327, this pair ranks #392,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of serve vs sorte
Shared letters: ers. Private to "serve": v. Private to "sorte": ot.
"serve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "sorte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "serve" for "sorte" ever safe?
Frequency check: "serve" vs "sorte" - 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 "serve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sorte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,831 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "serve" and "sorte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs serve". 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 #392,831 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.