illicitesvsillimitéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,348
“illicites” frequency rank
#42,390
“illimitées” frequency rank
63738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature illicites illimitées
Definition Pluriel de illicite. Féminin pluriel de illimité.

Where the eye mixes illicites and illimitées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. illicites runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVC) against illimitées's 10 (VCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
illicites
10 ch
illimitées

Why the eye confuses illicites with illimitées

A purely visual mix-up. illicites (\il.li.sit\) and illimitées (\i.li.mi.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 63738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

illicites is recorded at frequency rank #21,348, classified as anadj, pronounced \il.li.sit\. illimitées is at rank #42,390, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.li.mi.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 63738, this pair ranks #80,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of illicites vs illimitées

Shared letters: eilst. Private to "illicites": c. Private to "illimitées": mé.

"illicites" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC  ·  "illimitées" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • illicites ← ilicites · ililcites · illciites · illiccites · illiciets · illicitess · illicitse · illicittes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "illicites" and "illimitées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\il.li.sit\ versus \i.li.mi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "illicites" vs "illimitées" - which ranks higher?
"illicites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,348 in our French list, against #42,390 for "illimitées". 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 "illicites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "illimitées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "illicites" and "illimitées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illimitées vs illimités". 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 #80,450 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