Which to use
“habileté” and “habilités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,725
- “habileté” frequency rank
- #36,425
- “habilités” frequency rank
- 54150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | habileté | habilités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Facilité, disposition, qualité qui rend propre à faire certaines choses, à réussir dans certaines actions, en particulier en utilisant ses mains. | Pluriel de habilité. |
Where the eye mixes habileté and habilités
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. habileté runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against habilités's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between habileté and habilités
A purely visual mix-up. habileté (\a.bil.te\) and habilités (\a.bi.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 54150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
habileté is recorded at frequency rank #17,725, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.bil.te\. habilités is at rank #36,425, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.bi.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 54150, this pair ranks #135,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of habileté vs habilités
Shared letters: abhilté. Private to "habileté": e. Private to "habilités": s.
"habileté" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "habilités" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "habileté" for "habilités" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "habileté" or "habilités" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "habileté" and "habilités" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "habileté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "habilités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #135,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "habileté" and "habilités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habilitée vs habilités". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #135,933 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.