Which to use
“start” and “startup” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,662
- “start” frequency rank
- #9,919
- “startup” frequency rank
- 16581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | start | startup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Départ, pour les courses de sprint. | Jeune entreprise innovante et dynamique, à croissance rapide. |
Where the eye mixes start and startup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses start with startup
A purely visual mix-up. start (\staʁt\) and startup (\staʁ.tœp\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “start” sits inside “startup”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
start is recorded at frequency rank #6,662, classified as anoun, pronounced \staʁt\. startup is at rank #9,919, tagged as anoun, pronounced \staʁ.tœp\.
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 16581, this pair ranks #387,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of start vs startup
Shared letters: arst. Private to "start": -. Private to "startup": pu.
"start" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "startup" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "start" and "startup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "start" or "startup" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "start" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "startup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "start" and "startup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sénart vs start". 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 #387,178 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.