alibivsalizéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: alibi is a noun, alizé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alibi” is a noun and “alizé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,763
“alibi” frequency rank
#48,320
“alizé” frequency rank
71083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alibi alizé
Definition Présence d’une personne dans un lieu autre que celui où a été commis le crime ou le délit dont on l’accuse. Qualifie certains vents qui règnent entre les deux tropiques et qui soufflent de l’est à l’ouest.

Where the eye mixes alibi and alizé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
alibi
5 ch
alizé

Why the eye confuses alibi with alizé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alibi is \a.li.bi\ while alizé is \a.li.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alibi is recorded at frequency rank #22,763, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.li.bi\. alizé is at rank #48,320, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.li.ze\.

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 71083, this pair ranks #48,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alibi vs alizé

Shared letters: ail. Private to "alibi": b. Private to "alizé": .

"alibi" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "alizé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alibiailbi · albii · alibbi · aliib · allibi · laibi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alibi" for "alizé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alibi" is a noun and "alizé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alibi" or "alizé"?
"alibi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,763 in our French list, against #48,320 for "alizé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alibi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alizé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alibi" and "alizé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alina 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 #48,873 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list