urgentvsurgenteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,144
“urgent” frequency rank
#17,585
“urgente” frequency rank
23729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature urgent urgente
Definition Qui est pressant, qui ne souffre aucun retard. Féminin singulier de urgent.

Where the eye mixes urgent and urgente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. urgent runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against urgente's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
urgent
7 ch
urgente

Look-alike desk: urgent vs urgente

A purely visual mix-up. urgent (\yʁ.ʒɑ̃\) and urgente (\yʁ.ʒɑ̃t\) 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) - “urgent” sits inside “urgente”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

urgent is recorded at frequency rank #6,144, classified as anadj, pronounced \yʁ.ʒɑ̃\. urgente is at rank #17,585, tagged as anadj, pronounced \yʁ.ʒɑ̃t\.

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 23729, this pair ranks #350,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of urgent vs urgente

Shared letters: egnrtu. Private to "urgent": -. Private to "urgente": -.

"urgent" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "urgente" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • urgent ← rugent · ugrent · uregnt · urgennt · urgentt · urgetn · urggent · urgnet
  • urgente ← rugente · ugrente · uregnte · urgenet · urgennte · urgentte · urgetne · urggente

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "urgent" and "urgente" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\yʁ.ʒɑ̃\ versus \yʁ.ʒɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "urgent" or "urgente" show up more?
"urgent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,144 in our French list, against #17,585 for "urgente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "urgent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "urgente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "urgent" and "urgente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "urgent vs œuvrent". 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 #350,794 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