texturevstortureWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,278
“texture” frequency rank
#6,249
“torture” frequency rank
19527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature texture torture
Definition Action de tisser, état d’une chose tissée. Souffrance cruelle, tourment qu’on fait souffrir.

Where the eye mixes texture and torture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
texture
7 ch
torture

Look-alike desk: texture vs torture

A purely visual mix-up. texture (\tɛks.tyʁ\) and torture (\tɔʁ.tyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

texture is recorded at frequency rank #13,278, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛks.tyʁ\. torture is at rank #6,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔʁ.tyʁ\.

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 19527, this pair ranks #372,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of texture vs torture

Shared letters: ertu. Private to "texture": x. Private to "torture": o.

"texture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "torture" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • textureetxture · tetxure · textrue · textture · textuer · texturre · texutre · texxture
  • tortureotrture · torrture · tortrue · tortture · tortuer · torturre · torutre · totrure

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "texture" for "torture" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɛks.tyʁ\ versus \tɔʁ.tyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "texture" or "torture" show up more?
"torture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,249 in our French list, against #13,278 for "texture". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "texture" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "torture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "texture" and "torture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "textuel vs texture". 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 #372,823 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