Which to use
“teck” is a noun and “têtu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,910
- “teck” frequency rank
- #23,059
- “têtu” frequency rank
- 68969
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teck | têtu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grand arbre de la famille des verbénacées, qui croît dans l’Inde, et dont le bois imputrescible est recherché pour la construction des vaisseaux. | Opiniâtre, obstiné, qui ne veut pas démordre de son idée, opinion, ou volonté. |
Where the eye mixes teck and têtu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. teck (CVCC) and têtu (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses teck with têtu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: teck is \tɛk\ while têtu is \tɛ.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teck is recorded at frequency rank #45,910, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛk\. têtu is at rank #23,059, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɛ.ty\.
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 68969, this pair ranks #57,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of teck vs têtu
Shared letters: t. Private to "teck": cek. Private to "têtu": uê.
"teck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "têtu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- teck ← etck · tcek · tecck · teckk · tekc · tteck
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "teck" and "têtu" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "teck" or "têtu"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "teck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "têtu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teck" and "têtu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teach vs teck". 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 #57,006 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.