inutile

\i.ny.til\

/\i.ny.til\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“inutile” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,230. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,230
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui n’est d’aucune utilité, d’aucun usage, en parlant des choses.

Corpus desk

Index FR-inutile · inutile · French

inutile · rank #2,230 · 9 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,230
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH initiative

Nearest frequency peer: initiative (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « inutile »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « inutile » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

inutile vs inutilité
67% similar
inutile vs intime
71% similar
inutile vs initie
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for inutile
PropertyValue
Headwordinutile
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\i.ny.til\
Letters7
Frequency rank#2,230
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « inutile »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).inutilese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « initiative » (#2,229), « investissement » (#2,231), « individus » (#2,228). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « inutile » est au #2,230. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around inutile (IPA \i.ny.til\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #2,230 among 3,561 “I” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for inutile, with forms such as "innutile", "intuile", and "inuitle". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "inutilité", "intime", "initie", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is inutile, spelled I-N-U-T-I-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui n’est d’aucune utilité, d’aucun usage, en parlant des choses.
  2. 2
    Qui ne rend aucun service, en parlant des personnes.
  3. 3
    Dont on n’emploie pas les talents, les services.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how inutile appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ai-je besoin de vous dire, après cela, que tout notre argent était dépensé en fantaisies inutiles de toilettes ?
  2. Nous avons, nous autres singes ratés, depuis la nuit des temps, inventé et célébré, continûment, l’indispensable nécessité des choses inutiles à notre survie.

Synonyms

superfétatoiresuperfluvainsuperflu

Antonyms

nécessaireutile

This word in other languages

unprofitable(English)inútil(Español)unnütz(Deutsch)inútil(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • innutile
  • intuile
  • inuitle
  • inutiel
  • inutille
  • inutlie
  • inuttile
  • iuntile
  • niutile

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of inutile - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

innutile1intuile2inuitle2inutiel2inutille1inutlie2inuttile1iuntile2
Edit distance from "inutile"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "inutile"?
"inutile" is spelled I-N-U-T-I-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \i.ny.til\.
What does "inutile" mean?
As an adjective, "inutile" means: Qui n’est d’aucune utilité, d’aucun usage, en parlant des choses.
What words are commonly confused with "inutile"?
"inutile" is commonly confused with "inutilité", "intime", "initie". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "inutile"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "inutile" is \i.ny.til\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "inutile" come from?
"inutile" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "inutile", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

passion#2,238composé#2,219attendu#2,215richard#2,247

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

profil9 variantsrecord9 variantsaspect9 variantsalliance9 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list