Confident, Confidant, and Confidante

What are the differences between confident, confidant, and confidante?

A confidant or confidante is someone to whom private matters are confided. (The words confidant and confidante are interchangeable, but strict grammarians reserve confidant for males and confidante for females.)

Confident means being certain or assured; e.g., I am confident it will rain.

Confident, Confidant, and Confidante

Writers some confuse confident and confidant. These words look similar, but their meanings are very different. Confidant and confidante (both of which have French pronunciations) are interchangeable, but some like to use confidant for males and confidante for females.

Confident

The word confident is nearly always an adjective. Someone with confidence (i.e., not shy and with self-belief) is described as confident. Being confident also means to be assured or certain of something that is pending.

Examples:

My theory is that if you look confident you can pull off anything - even if you have no clue what you're doing. (Jessica Alba)
No matter what a woman looks like, if she's confident, she's sexy. (Paris Hilton)
And in rejecting an atheistic other world, I am confident that the Almighty God will be with us. (President Herbert Hoover)

Confidant

The noun confidant refers to someone to whom private or personal matters are confided (i.e., someone trusted).

Examples:

Finding a confidant can be difficult if you have a hard time placing trust in others.
An Egyptian believed to be a close confidant of Bin Laden has been killed in a drone strike.

Confidante

Most people consider the word confidante to be an alternative spelling of confidant. However, some contest that confidante is the female version of confidant, which they reserve for males. If you know the confidant is a female, I would advise using confidante.

A Quick Test

Help Us To Improve English Grammar Lessons

Do you disagree with something on this page?
Did you spot a typo?

Please tell us using this form.