Which to use
“habiletés” and “habilités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,428
- “habiletés” frequency rank
- #36,425
- “habilités” frequency rank
- 68853
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | habiletés | habilités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de habileté. | Pluriel de habilité. |
Where the eye mixes habiletés and habilités
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. habiletés and habilités follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between habiletés and habilités
A purely visual mix-up. habiletés (\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 a single letter - e in “habiletés” becomes i in “habilités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
habiletés is recorded at frequency rank #32,428, 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 68853, this pair ranks #57,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of habiletés vs habilités
Shared letters: abhilsté. Private to "habiletés": e. Private to "habilités": -.
"habiletés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC · "habilités" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "habiletés" for "habilités" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "habiletés" or "habilités" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "habiletés" and "habilités" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "habiletés" 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 #57,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "habiletés" and "habilités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habilitée vs habilités". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #57,420 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.