Which to use
“fertilité” and “futilité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,144
- “fertilité” frequency rank
- #47,906
- “futilité” frequency rank
- 63050
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fertilité | futilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qualité de ce qui est fertile. | Caractère d’une chose ou d’une personne futile. |
Where the eye mixes fertilité and futilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fertilité with futilité
A purely visual mix-up. fertilité (\fɛʁ.ti.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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fertilité is recorded at frequency rank #15,144, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛʁ.ti.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 63050, this pair ranks #83,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fertilité vs futilité
Shared letters: filté. Private to "fertilité": er. Private to "futilité": u.
"fertilité" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV · "futilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fertilité" for "futilité" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fertilité" or "futilité" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fertilité" and "futilité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fertilité" 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 #83,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fertilité" and "futilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "futile vs futilité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #83,941 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.