Which to use
“fragility” and “frailty” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,662
- “fragility” frequency rank
- #41,133
- “frailty” frequency rank
- 70795
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fragility | frailty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The condition or quality of being fragile; brittleness; frangibility. | The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally; weakness of resolution; liability to be deceived. |
Where the eye mixes fragility and frailty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fragility runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVCV) against frailty's 7 (CCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fragility and frailty
A purely visual mix-up. fragility (/fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/) and frailty (/ˈfɹeɪlti/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fragility is recorded at frequency rank #29,662, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɹəˈd͡ʒɪlɪti/. frailty is at rank #41,133, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɹeɪlti/.
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 70795, this pair ranks #49,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fragility vs frailty
Shared letters: afilrty. Private to "fragility": g. Private to "frailty": -.
"fragility" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV · "frailty" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fragility" for "frailty" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fragility" or "frailty"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fragility" and "frailty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fragility" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frailty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fragility" and "frailty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fealty 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 #49,146 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.