tuéevstuskWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,933
“tuée” frequency rank
#46,504
“tusk” frequency rank
56437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tuée tusk
Definition Femme tuée. Défense (dents).

Where the eye mixes tuée and tusk

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tuée (CVVV) and tusk (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
tuée
4 ch
tusk

Visual trap between tuée and tusk

A purely visual mix-up. tuée (\tɥe\) and tusk (\ˈtʌsk\) 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 56437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tuée is recorded at frequency rank #9,933, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɥe\. tusk is at rank #46,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈtʌsk\.

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 56437, this pair ranks #121,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tuée vs tusk

Shared letters: tu. Private to "tuée": eé. Private to "tusk": ks.

"tuée" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "tusk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tusk ← tsuk · ttusk · tuks · tuskk · tussk · utsk

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tuée" for "tusk" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɥe\ versus \ˈtʌsk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "tuée" vs "tusk" - which ranks higher?
"tuée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,933 in our French list, against #46,504 for "tusk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tuée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tusk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tuée" and "tusk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "turf vs tusk". 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 #121,105 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