Which to use
“facility” and “fragility” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,484
- “facility” frequency rank
- #29,662
- “fragility” frequency rank
- 32146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | facility | fragility |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The physical means or contrivances to make something (especially a public service) possible; the required equipment, infrastructure, location etc. | The condition or quality of being fragile; brittleness; frangibility. |
Where the eye mixes facility and fragility
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. facility runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against fragility's 9 (CCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between facility and fragility
A purely visual mix-up. facility (/fəˈsɪl.ᵻ.ti/) and fragility (/fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
facility is recorded at frequency rank #2,484, classified as anoun, pronounced /fəˈsɪl.ᵻ.ti/. fragility is at rank #29,662, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/.
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 32146, this pair ranks #340,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of facility vs fragility
Shared letters: afilty. Private to "facility": c. Private to "fragility": gr.
"facility" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "fragility" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "facility" and "fragility" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "facility" or "fragility" show up more?
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 "facility" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fragility" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #340,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "facility" and "fragility" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fragility vs frailty". 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 #340,268 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.