habilitévshumilitéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,883
“habilité” frequency rank
#10,718
“humilité” frequency rank
34601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habilité humilité
Definition Résultat de l’habilitation, aptitude. Vertu qui nous donne le sentiment de notre faiblesse, qui réprime en nous les mouvements de l’orgueil.

Where the eye mixes habilité and humilité

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

8 ch
habilité
8 ch
humilité

Visual trap between habilité and humilité

A purely visual mix-up. habilité (\a.bi.li.te\) and humilité (\y.mi.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 34601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habilité is recorded at frequency rank #23,883, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.bi.li.te\. humilité is at rank #10,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced \y.mi.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 34601, this pair ranks #282,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of habilité vs humilité

Shared letters: hilté. Private to "habilité": ab. Private to "humilité": mu.

"habilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "humilité" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "habilité" and "humilité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.bi.li.te\ versus \y.mi.li.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "habilité" vs "humilité" - which ranks higher?
"humilité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,718 in our French list, against #23,883 for "habilité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "habilité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "humilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habilité" and "humilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habilité vs habilitée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #282,688 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