Which to use
“facilité” and “futilité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,038
- “facilité” frequency rank
- #47,906
- “futilité” frequency rank
- 52944
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | facilité | futilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qualité de ce qui est fait ou employé sans peine. | Caractère d’une chose ou d’une personne futile. |
Where the eye mixes facilité and futilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. facilité and futilité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses facilité with futilité
A purely visual mix-up. facilité (\fa.si.li.te\) and futilité (\fy.ti.li.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
facilité is recorded at frequency rank #5,038, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.si.li.te\. futilité is at rank #47,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.ti.li.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 52944, this pair ranks #144,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of facilité vs futilité
Shared letters: filté. Private to "facilité": ac. Private to "futilité": u.
"facilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "futilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "facilité" for "futilité" ever safe?
Frequency check: "facilité" vs "futilité" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "facilité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "futilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,195 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "facilité" and "futilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "futile vs futilité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #144,195 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.