Which to use
“ténue” is an adjective and “terme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,245
- “ténue” frequency rank
- #535
- “terme” frequency rank
- 48780
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ténue | terme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de ténu. | Borne marquant une limite et faite d’un buste terminé en gaine, en souvenir du dieu Terme. |
Where the eye mixes ténue and terme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ténue (CVCVV) and terme (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between ténue and terme
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ténue is \te.ny\ while terme is \tɛʁm\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ténue is recorded at frequency rank #48,245, classified as anadj, pronounced \te.ny\. terme is at rank #535, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁm\.
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 48780, this pair ranks #176,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ténue vs terme
Shared letters: et. Private to "ténue": nué. Private to "terme": mr.
"ténue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "terme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- terme ← etrme · temre · terem · termme · terrme · treme · tterme
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ténue" for "terme" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ténue" or "terme"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ténue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "terme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,098 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ténue" and "terme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tender vs ténue". 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 #176,098 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.