Which to use
“smile” and “stèle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,233
- “smile” frequency rank
- #25,139
- “stèle” frequency rank
- 52372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smile | stèle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sourire. | Monument monolithe ayant la forme d’un fût de colonne, d’un obélisque, d’une dalle dressée et sculptée ou peinte, qui sert le plus souvent à marquer l’emplacement d’une sépulture. |
Letter map: smile vs stèle
Shared letters muted; letters that set smile and stèle apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. smile and stèle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on smile vs stèle
smile and stèle are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smile is recorded at frequency rank #27,233, classified as anoun. stèle is at rank #25,139, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\.
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 52372, this pair ranks #148,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of smile vs stèle
Shared letters: els. Private to "smile": im. Private to "stèle": tè.
"smile" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stèle" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- smile ← msile · simle · smiel · smille · smlie · smmile · ssmile
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "smile" for "stèle" ever safe?
Which is more common, "smile" or "stèle"?
What to do next
Pair "smile" vs "stèle" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "smile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stèle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smile" and "stèle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs stèle". 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 #148,186 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.