habillervshabillezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,065
“habiller” frequency rank
#44,488
“habillez” frequency rank
51553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habiller habillez
Definition Mettre des habits à quelqu’un, le vêtir. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de habiller.

Where the eye mixes habiller and habillez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. habiller and habillez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
habiller
8 ch
habillez

Visual trap between habiller and habillez

A purely visual mix-up. habiller (^((h muet))\a.bi.je\) and habillez (\a.bi.je\) 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 - r in “habiller” becomes z in “habillez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habiller is recorded at frequency rank #7,065, classified as averb, pronounced ^((h muet))\a.bi.je\. habillez is at rank #44,488, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.bi.je\.

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 51553, this pair ranks #154,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of habiller vs habillez

Shared letters: abehil. Private to "habiller": r. Private to "habillez": z.

"habiller" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "habillez" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habiller ← ahbiller · habbiller · habilelr · habiler · habillerr · habillre · habliler · haibller
  • habillez ← ahbillez · habbillez · habilelz · habilez · habillezz · habillze · hablilez · haibllez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "habiller" for "habillez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h muet))\a.bi.je\ versus \a.bi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "habiller" vs "habillez" - which ranks higher?
"habiller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,065 in our French list, against #44,488 for "habillez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "habiller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "habillez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,148 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habiller" and "habillez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habilles vs habillez". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #154,148 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