faillitevsfatalitéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,558
“faillite” frequency rank
#17,710
“fatalité” frequency rank
23268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faillite fatalité
Definition Banqueroute forcée d’un négociant, obligation pour lui de suspendre ses paiements. Destinée inévitable.

Where the eye mixes faillite and fatalité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. faillite (CVVCCVCV) and fatalité (CVCVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
faillite
8 ch
fatalité

Visual trap between faillite and fatalité

A purely visual mix-up. faillite (\fa.jit\) and fatalité (\fa.ta.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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faillite is recorded at frequency rank #5,558, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.jit\. fatalité is at rank #17,710, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.ta.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 23268, this pair ranks #353,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of faillite vs fatalité

Shared letters: afilt. Private to "faillite": e. Private to "fatalité": é.

"faillite" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV  ·  "fatalité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faillite ← afillite · faililte · failite · failliet · faillitte · failltie · falilite · ffaillite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "faillite" and "fatalité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fa.jit\ versus \fa.ta.li.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faillite" or "fatalité"?
"faillite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,558 in our French list, against #17,710 for "fatalité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "faillite" and "fatalité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faillite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fatalité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faillite" and "fatalité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fatalité vs futilité". 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 #353,467 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