spatulevsstatureTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,544
“spatule” frequency rank
#22,423
“stature” frequency rank
63967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spatule stature
Definition Baguette de bois, de métal, d’ivoire, etc., élargie et aplatie à un bout, dont on se sert en pharmacie et en chimie. Hauteur du corps d’une personne ou d’un animal (dressé sur ses pattes postérieures).

Where the eye mixes spatule and stature

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. spatule and stature follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
spatule
7 ch
stature

Look-alike desk: spatule vs stature

A purely visual mix-up. spatule (\spa.tyl\) and stature (\sta.tyʁ\) 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 63967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spatule is recorded at frequency rank #41,544, classified as anoun, pronounced \spa.tyl\. stature is at rank #22,423, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sta.tyʁ\.

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 63967, this pair ranks #79,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spatule vs stature

Shared letters: aestu. Private to "spatule": lp. Private to "stature": r.

"spatule" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "stature" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spatule ← psatule · saptule · spatlue · spattule · spatuel · spatulle · spautle · sppatule
  • stature ← satture · sstature · statrue · statture · staturre · stautre · sttature · sttaure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spatule" and "stature" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\spa.tyl\ versus \sta.tyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "spatule" vs "stature" - which ranks higher?
"stature" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,423 in our French list, against #41,544 for "spatule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spatule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stature" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spatule" and "stature" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saoulé vs spatule". 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 #79,327 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