têtuevstutuConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#42,667
“têtue” frequency rank
#36,195
“tutu” frequency rank
78862
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature têtue tutu
Definition Femme obstinée. Cul, derrière, fesses.

Where the eye mixes têtue and tutu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. têtue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against tutu's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
têtue
4 ch
tutu

Visual trap between têtue and tutu

A purely visual mix-up. têtue (\tɛ.ty\) and tutu (\ty.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 78862, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

têtue is recorded at frequency rank #42,667, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.ty\. tutu is at rank #36,195, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ty.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 78862, this pair ranks #24,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of têtue vs tutu

Shared letters: tu. Private to "têtue": eê. Private to "tutu": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tutu ← ttutu · ttuu · tuttu · tuut · uttu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "têtue" for "tutu" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɛ.ty\ versus \ty.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "têtue" or "tutu"?
"tutu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,195 in our French list, against #42,667 for "têtue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "têtue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tutu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "têtue" and "tutu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs têtue". 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 #24,696 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