stratevsstratègeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,019
“strate” frequency rank
#20,859
“stratège” frequency rank
61878
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature strate stratège
Definition Couche, niveau parmi plusieurs. Général ; titre des dix chefs élus qui commandaient l’armée à Athènes et remplissaient quelques autres fonctions du pouvoir exécutif.

Where the eye mixes strate and stratège

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
strate
8 ch
stratège

Why the eye confuses strate with stratège

A purely visual mix-up. strate (\stʁat\) and stratège (\stʁa.tɛʒ\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

strate is recorded at frequency rank #41,019, classified as anoun, pronounced \stʁat\. stratège is at rank #20,859, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stʁa.tɛʒ\.

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 61878, this pair ranks #89,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of strate vs stratège

Shared letters: aerst. Private to "strate": -. Private to "stratège": .

"strate" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV  ·  "stratège" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stratesrtate · sstrate · starte · straet · stratte · strrate · strtae · sttrate

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "strate" for "stratège" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\stʁat\ versus \stʁa.tɛʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "strate" or "stratège"?
"stratège" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,859 in our French list, against #41,019 for "strate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "strate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stratège" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "strate" and "stratège" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs strate". 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 #89,959 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