Which to use
“illisible” and “invisible” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,994
- “illisible” frequency rank
- #5,879
- “invisible” frequency rank
- 34873
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | illisible | invisible |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qu’on ne peut lire ou qu’on ne lit que très difficilement. | Qu’on ne peut voir, qui échappe à la vue par sa nature, par sa petitesse, par sa position, ou seulement à cause de la distance. |
Where the eye mixes illisible and invisible
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. illisible and invisible follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: illisible vs invisible
A purely visual mix-up. illisible (\i(l).li.zibl\) and invisible (\ɛ̃.vi.zibl\) 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 34873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
illisible is recorded at frequency rank #28,994, classified as anadj, pronounced \i(l).li.zibl\. invisible is at rank #5,879, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.vi.zibl\.
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 34873, this pair ranks #280,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of illisible vs invisible
Shared letters: beils. Private to "illisible": -. Private to "invisible": nv.
"illisible" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "invisible" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "illisible" and "invisible" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "illisible" or "invisible"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "illisible" and "invisible" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "illisible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "invisible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,750 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "illisible" and "invisible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illisible vs illisibles". 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 #280,750 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.