Which to use
“agile” is an adjective and “agisse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,229
- “agile” frequency rank
- #7,397
- “agisse” frequency rank
- 28626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agile | agisse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a des facilités pour agir ou se mouvoir, dispos, léger, souple. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de agir. |
Where the eye mixes agile and agisse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. agile runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against agisse's 6 (VCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: agile vs agisse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agile is \a.ʒil\ while agisse is \a.ʒis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agile is recorded at frequency rank #21,229, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʒil\. agisse is at rank #7,397, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʒis\.
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 28626, this pair ranks #321,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of agile vs agisse
Shared letters: aegi. Private to "agile": l. Private to "agisse": s.
"agile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "agisse" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "agile" and "agisse" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "agile" vs "agisse" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "agile" and "agisse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "agile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agisse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agile" and "agisse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agile vs alizé". 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 #321,652 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.