skatevssorteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“skate” and “sorte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,322
“skate” frequency rank
#761
“sorte” frequency rank
19083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skate sorte
Definition Discipline sportive se pratiquant sur une planche à roulettes. Espèce ; genre.

Where the eye mixes skate and sorte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
skate
5 ch
sorte

Why the eye confuses skate with sorte

A purely visual mix-up. skate (\skɛt\) 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 19083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skate is recorded at frequency rank #18,322, classified as anoun, pronounced \skɛt\. 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 19083, this pair ranks #375,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of skate vs sorte

Shared letters: est. Private to "skate": ak. Private to "sorte": or.

"skate" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "sorte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skateksate · sakte · skaet · skatte · skkate · sktae · sskate
  • sorteosrte · soret · sorrte · sortte · sotre · srote · ssorte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "skate" for "sorte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\skɛt\ versus \sɔʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "skate" or "sorte"?
"sorte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #761 in our French list, against #18,322 for "skate". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "skate" and "sorte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "skate" 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 #375,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skate" and "sorte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skate vs stase". 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 #375,104 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