useful
The verdict
“useful” is uncommon French (frequency #86,286 among 44,794 “U” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #86,286
- frequency rank, French
- 44,794
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Utile.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | useful |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #86,286 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “useful” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
useful is uncommon French at frequency #86,286 among 44,794 “U” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Utile.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for useful, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is useful, spelled U-S-E-F-U-L.
Definition
- 1Utile.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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
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Using “useful”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is U-S-E-F-U-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.