Which to use
“tertre” and “tête” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,304
- “tertre” frequency rank
- #237
- “tête” frequency rank
- 35541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tertre | tête |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Monticule, éminence isolée. | Partie supérieure du corps, qui est le siège du cerveau et des principaux organes des sens, et qui, chez l’être humain et chez la plupart des vertébrés, tient au reste du corps par le cou. |
Where the eye mixes tertre and tête
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between tertre and tête
A purely visual mix-up. tertre (\tɛʁtʁ\) and tête (\tɛt\) 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 35541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tertre is recorded at frequency rank #35,304, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁtʁ\. tête is at rank #237, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛt\.
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 35541, this pair ranks #275,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tertre vs tête
Shared letters: et. Private to "tertre": r. Private to "tête": ê.
"tertre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "tête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tertre ← etrtre · terrte · terrtre · terter · tertrre · terttre · tetrre · tretre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tertre" for "tête" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tertre" vs "tête" - which ranks higher?
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 "tertre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tête" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tertre" and "tête" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ternie vs tertre". 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 #275,991 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.