tracésvstraversWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,397
“tracés” frequency rank
#730
“travers” frequency rank
24127
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tracés travers
Definition Pluriel de tracé. Étendue d’un corps considéré dans sa largeur.

Where the eye mixes tracés and travers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tracés
7 ch
travers

Why the eye confuses tracés with travers

A purely visual mix-up. tracés (\tʁa.se\) and travers (\tʁa.vɛʁ\) 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 24127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tracés is recorded at frequency rank #23,397, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.se\. travers is at rank #730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.vɛʁ\.

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 24127, this pair ranks #348,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tracés vs travers

Shared letters: arst. Private to "tracés": . Private to "travers": ev.

"tracés" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "travers" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • traversrtavers · tarvers · traevrs · traverrs · traverss · travesr · travres · travvers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tracés" and "travers" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tʁa.se\ versus \tʁa.vɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tracés" or "travers"?
"travers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #730 in our French list, against #23,397 for "tracés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tracés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "travers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tracés" and "travers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tracés vs trônes". 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 #348,440 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