tête vs têtue, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“tête” and “têtue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#237
“tête” frequency rank: #42,667
“têtue” frequency rank: 42904
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	tête	têtue
Definition	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.	Femme obstinée.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tête and têtue apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

tête

5 ch

têtue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tête (\tɛt\) and têtue (\tɛ.ty\) 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 42904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tête is recorded at frequency rank #237, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛt\. têtue is at rank #42,667, tagged as anoun, 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 42904, this pair ranks #222,030 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tête vs têtue

Shared letters: etê. Private to "tête": -. Private to "têtue": u.

"tête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "têtue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequency comparison

tête#237

têtue#42,667

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tête" and "têtue" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\tɛt\ versus \tɛ.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "tête" or "têtue"?

"tête" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #237 in our French list, against #42,667 for "têtue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering tête vs têtue

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tête” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable