Which to use
“teneur” and “terreur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,084
- “teneur” frequency rank
- #6,445
- “terreur” frequency rank
- 15529
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | teneur | terreur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui est contenu mot à mot dans un écrit, son texte littéral. | Émotion profonde causée dans l’âme par la présence, l’annonce, la peinture d’un grand mal ou d’un grand péril ; épouvante, crainte violente. |
Where the eye mixes teneur and terreur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. teneur runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against terreur's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: teneur vs terreur
A purely visual mix-up. teneur (\tə.nœʁ\) and terreur (\tɛ.ʁœʁ\) 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 15529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
teneur is recorded at frequency rank #9,084, classified as anoun, pronounced \tə.nœʁ\. terreur is at rank #6,445, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.ʁœʁ\.
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 15529, this pair ranks #391,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of teneur vs terreur
Shared letters: ertu. Private to "teneur": n. Private to "terreur": -.
"teneur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "terreur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "teneur" for "terreur" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "teneur" or "terreur" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "teneur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "terreur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "teneur" and "terreur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs teneur". 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 #391,951 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.