useless

\ˈju:sləs\

/\ˈju:sləs\/ adj

The verdict

“useless” is uncommon French (frequency #64,857 among 456 “U” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,857
frequency rank, French
456
“U” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Inutile.

Corpus desk

Index FR-useless · useless · French

useless · rank #64,857 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,857
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 456
  • PHOTO-FINISH uruguayenne

Nearest frequency peer: uruguayenne (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « useless »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « useless » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for useless
PropertyValue
Headworduseless
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ˈju:sləs\
Letters7
Frequency rank#64,857
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « useless » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).uselesstombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « uruguayenne » (#64,856), « utilitarisme » (#64,858), « understanding » (#64,855). Parmi 456 lemmes en « U », « useless » est au #64,857. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

useless is uncommon French at frequency #64,857 among 456 “U” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ˈju:sləs\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Inutile.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for useless, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is useless, spelled U-S-E-L-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Inutile.

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

How do you spell "useless"?
"useless" is spelled U-S-E-L-E-S-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈju:sləs\.
What does "useless" mean?
As an adjective, "useless" means: Inutile.
How do you pronounce "useless"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "useless" is \ˈju:sləs\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "useless" come from?
"useless" 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 "useless", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list