terrevstiréTell them apart

Quick tell: terre is a noun, tiré is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“terre” is a noun and “tiré” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#386
“terre” frequency rank
#2,548
“tiré” frequency rank
2934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terre tiré
Definition Sol sur lequel nous marchons, sur lequel les maisons sont construites, qui produit et nourrit les végétaux. Abattu, amaigri, qui témoigne d’usure, de fatigue (en parlant du visage, des traits).

Where the eye mixes terre and tiré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
terre
4 ch
tiré

Visual trap between terre and tiré

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: terre is \tɛʁ\ while tiré is \ti.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terre is recorded at frequency rank #386, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁ\. tiré is at rank #2,548, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ti.ʁe\.

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 2934, this pair ranks #435,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of terre vs tiré

Shared letters: rt. Private to "terre": e. Private to "tiré": .

"terre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tiré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terreetrre · tere · terer · trere · tterre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "terre" and "tiré" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terre" is a noun and "tiré" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "terre" or "tiré"?
"terre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #386 in our French list, against #2,548 for "tiré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "terre" and "tiré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terre" and "tiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs tiré". 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 #435,165 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