Which to use
“travers” and “traverse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #730
- “travers” frequency rank
- #4,387
- “traverse” frequency rank
- 5117
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travers | traverse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue d’un corps considéré dans sa largeur. | Action de traverser. |
Where the eye mixes travers and traverse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between travers and traverse
A purely visual mix-up. travers (\tʁa.vɛʁ\) and traverse (\tʁa.vɛʁs\) 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 extra letter(s) - “travers” sits inside “traverse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5117, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travers is recorded at frequency rank #730, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.vɛʁ\. traverse is at rank #4,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.vɛʁs\.
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 5117, this pair ranks #429,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of travers vs traverse
Shared letters: aerstv. Private to "travers": -. Private to "traverse": -.
"travers" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "traverse" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "travers" and "traverse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "travers" vs "traverse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "travers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "traverse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travers" and "traverse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "traverse vs traversier". 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 #429,853 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.