fémininevsféminitéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,674
“féminine” frequency rank
#20,734
“féminité” frequency rank
25408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature féminine féminité
Definition Sportive (par opposition aux hommes). Caractère de ce qui est féminin.

Where the eye mixes féminine and féminité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. féminine and féminité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
féminine
8 ch
féminité

Why the eye confuses féminine with féminité

A purely visual mix-up. féminine (\fe.mi.nin\) and féminité (\fe.mi.ni.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 25408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

féminine is recorded at frequency rank #4,674, classified as anoun, pronounced \fe.mi.nin\. féminité is at rank #20,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fe.mi.ni.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 25408, this pair ranks #341,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of féminine vs féminité

Shared letters: fimné. Private to "féminine": e. Private to "féminité": t.

"féminine" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "féminité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "féminine" and "féminité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fe.mi.nin\ versus \fe.mi.ni.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "féminine" or "féminité"?
"féminine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,674 in our French list, against #20,734 for "féminité". 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 "féminine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "féminité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "féminine" and "féminité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feinte vs féminité". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #341,045 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