sortievsSottiseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#623
“sortie” frequency rank
#42,625
“Sottise” frequency rank
43248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sortie Sottise
Definition Action de sortir. Sottise.

Where the eye mixes sortie and Sottise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sortie runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against Sottise's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sortie
7 ch
Sottise

Visual trap between sortie and Sottise

A purely visual mix-up. sortie (\sɔʁ.ti\) and Sottise (\ˌzɔˈtiːzə\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sortie is recorded at frequency rank #623, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔʁ.ti\. Sottise is at rank #42,625, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˌzɔˈtiːzə\.

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 43248, this pair ranks #219,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sortie vs Sottise

Shared letters: eiost. Private to "sortie": r. Private to "Sottise": -.

"sortie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Sottise" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sortie ← osrtie · sorite · sorrtie · sortei · sorttie · sotrie · srotie · ssortie
  • Sottise ← osttise · sotise · sotitse · sotties · sottsie · ssottise · stotise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sortie" and "Sottise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\sɔʁ.ti\ versus \ˌzɔˈtiːzə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "sortie" vs "Sottise" - which ranks higher?
"sortie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #623 in our French list, against #42,625 for "Sottise". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sortie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sottise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sortie" and "Sottise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sotte vs Sottise". 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 #219,545 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