Which to use
“fatalité” and “futilité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,710
- “fatalité” frequency rank
- #47,906
- “futilité” frequency rank
- 65616
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fatalité | futilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Destinée inévitable. | Caractère d’une chose ou d’une personne futile. |
Where the eye mixes fatalité and futilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fatalité and futilité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fatalité and futilité
A purely visual mix-up. fatalité (\fa.ta.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 65616, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fatalité is recorded at frequency rank #17,710, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.ta.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 65616, this pair ranks #71,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fatalité vs futilité
Shared letters: filté. Private to "fatalité": a. Private to "futilité": u.
"fatalité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "futilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fatalité" and "futilité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fatalité" or "futilité" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fatalité" and "futilité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fatalité" 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 #71,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fatalité" and "futilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "futile vs futilité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #71,545 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.