illimitévsillimitésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,891
“illimité” frequency rank
#26,046
“illimités” frequency rank
36937
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature illimité illimités
Definition Qui n’a pas de limites. Masculin pluriel de illimité.

Same sound, different letters: illimité vs illimités

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. illimité runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against illimités's 9 (VCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
illimité
9 ch
illimités

Ear matches; page differs - illimité and illimités

This is the hard kind. illimité and illimités are pronounced identically (\i.li.mi.te\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “illimité” sits inside “illimités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36937, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

illimité is recorded at frequency rank #10,891, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.li.mi.te\. illimités is at rank #26,046, 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 36937, this pair ranks #266,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of illimité vs illimités

Shared letters: ilmté. Private to "illimité": -. Private to "illimités": s.

"illimité" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "illimités" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "illimité" and "illimités" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.li.mi.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "illimité" vs "illimités" - which ranks higher?
"illimité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,891 in our French list, against #26,046 for "illimités". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "illimité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "illimités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,072 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "illimité" and "illimités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illimitées vs illimités". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #266,072 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