délimitéevsdélimiterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“délimitée” and “délimiter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,246
“délimitée” frequency rank
#32,386
“délimiter” frequency rank
73632
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délimitée délimiter
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de délimiter. Circonscrire dans des limites nettement déterminées.

Same sound, different letters: délimitée vs délimiter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. délimitée (CVCVCVCVV) and délimiter (CVCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
délimitée
9 ch
délimiter

Homophone desk: délimitée vs délimiter

This is the hard kind. délimitée and délimiter are pronounced identically (\de.li.mi.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délimitée is recorded at frequency rank #41,246, classified as averb, pronounced \de.li.mi.te\. délimiter is at rank #32,386, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.li.mi.te\.

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 73632, this pair ranks #39,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délimitée vs délimiter

Shared letters: deilmté. Private to "délimitée": -. Private to "délimiter": r.

"délimitée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV  ·  "délimiter" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "délimitée" and "délimiter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.li.mi.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "délimitée" vs "délimiter" - which ranks higher?
"délimiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,386 in our French list, against #41,246 for "délimitée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délimitée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délimiter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #39,780 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