Which to use
“illustre” and “illustrées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,143
- “illustre” frequency rank
- #29,811
- “illustrées” frequency rank
- 34954
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | illustre | illustrées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est célèbre par le mérite, par la noblesse, par quelque chose de louable et d’extraordinaire. | Féminin pluriel de illustré. |
Where the eye mixes illustre and illustrées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: illustre vs illustrées
A purely visual mix-up. illustre (\i.lystʁ\) and illustrées (\i.lys.tʁe\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
illustre is recorded at frequency rank #5,143, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.lystʁ\. illustrées is at rank #29,811, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.lys.tʁe\.
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 34954, this pair ranks #280,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of illustre vs illustrées
Shared letters: eilrstu. Private to "illustre": -. Private to "illustrées": é.
"illustre" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV · "illustrées" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- illustre ← illsutre · illusrte · illusstre · illuster · illustrre · illusttre · illutsre · ilulstre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "illustre" and "illustrées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "illustre" or "illustrées"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "illustre" and "illustrées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "illustre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "illustrées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "illustre" and "illustrées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "illustrées vs illustrés". 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 #280,200 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.