usé

\y.ze\

/\y.ze\/ adj

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

The verdict

“usé” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #13,292) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#13,292
frequency rank, French
456
“U” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Détérioré, diminué par le frottement, ruiné.

Corpus desk

Index FR-use · usé · French

usé · rank #13,292 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #13,292
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 456
  • PHOTO-FINISH ukrainien

Nearest frequency peer: ukrainien (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « usé »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « usé » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

usé vs UV
0% similar
usé vs ut
33% similar
usé vs ux
33% similar

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

Key facts for usé
PropertyValue
Headwordusé
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\y.ze\
Letters3
Frequency rank#13,292
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « usé »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).usése 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 « ukrainien » (#13,291), « visées » (#13,293), « tunisienne » (#13,290). Parmi 456 lemmes en « U », « usé » est au #13,292. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for usé is neighbouring look-alikes ("UV", "ut", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \y.ze\. Frequency #13,292 among 456 “U” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for usé, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "UV", "ut", "ux", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is usé, spelled U-S-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Détérioré, diminué par le frottement, ruiné.
  2. 2
    Qui a été employé souvent, rebattu.
  3. 3
    Émoussé.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Aussi, lorsque, après avoir franchi une porte vitrée immense, donnant sur un vestibule un peu moins vaste que le Square du temple, nous nous engageâmes dans un large escalier aux marches déclives, usées et traîtresses, mais qu’une rampe remarquablement ciselée aidait à gravir sans péril, je me contentai, toujours prudent, d’admirer l’élégante rampe en sil…
  2. Pierre tint serrés les cordons de sa bourse ; il ne voulut pas entendre parler d’embellissements ; l’ancien mobilier, fané, usé, éclopé, dut servir sans être seulement réparé. Félicité, qui sentait vivement, d’ailleurs, les raisons de cette ladrerie, s’ingénia pour donner un nouveau lustre à toutes ces ruines ; elle recloua elle-même certains meubles plus…

This word in other languages

used up(English)abgenutzt(Deutsch)usado(Português)

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 "usé"?
"usé" is spelled U-S-É. The IPA pronunciation is \y.ze\.
What does "usé" mean?
As an adjective, "usé" means: Détérioré, diminué par le frottement, ruiné.
What words are commonly confused with "usé"?
"usé" is commonly confused with "UV", "ut", "ux". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "usé"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "usé" is \y.ze\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "usé" come from?
"usé" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "usé", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Wii#13,2964x4#13,304seo#13,261sea#13,258

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list