Which to use
“volta” is a verb and “voûté” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,236
- “volta” frequency rank
- #45,952
- “voûté” frequency rank
- 78188
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | volta | voûté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de volter. | Qui présente une voûte, qui est recourbé. |
Where the eye mixes volta and voûté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses volta with voûté
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: volta is \vɔl.ta\ while voûté is \vu.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
volta is recorded at frequency rank #32,236, classified as averb, pronounced \vɔl.ta\. voûté is at rank #45,952, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vu.te\.
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 78188, this pair ranks #26,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of volta vs voûté
Shared letters: otv. Private to "volta": al. Private to "voûté": éû.
"volta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "voûté" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- volta ← ovlta · vlota · volat · vollta · voltta · votla · vvolta
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "volta" for "voûté" ever safe?
Which is more common, "volta" or "voûté"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "volta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voûté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,396 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "volta" and "voûté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voûté vs voûtée". 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 #26,396 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.