Which to use
“immobilise” and “immobiliser” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,713
- “immobilise” frequency rank
- #30,211
- “immobiliser” frequency rank
- 79924
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | immobilise | immobiliser |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de immobiliser. | Maintenir dans l’immobilité. |
Where the eye mixes immobilise and immobiliser
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. immobilise runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCVCV) against immobiliser's 11 (VCCVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: immobilise vs immobiliser
A purely visual mix-up. immobilise (\i.mɔ.bi.liz\) and immobiliser (\i(m).mɔ.bi.li.ze\) 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 extra letter(s) - “immobilise” sits inside “immobiliser”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
immobilise is recorded at frequency rank #49,713, classified as averb, pronounced \i.mɔ.bi.liz\. immobiliser is at rank #30,211, tagged as averb, pronounced \i(m).mɔ.bi.li.ze\.
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 79924, this pair ranks #22,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of immobilise vs immobiliser
Shared letters: beilmos. Private to "immobilise": -. Private to "immobiliser": r.
"immobilise" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCV · "immobiliser" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- immobilise ← immboilise · immobbilise · immobiilse · immobilies · immobilisse · immobillise · immobilsie · immobliise
- immobiliser ← immboiliser · immobbiliser · immobiilser · immobiliserr · immobilisre · immobilisser · immobilliser · immobilsier
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "immobilise" for "immobiliser" ever safe?
Frequency check: "immobilise" vs "immobiliser" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "immobilise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "immobiliser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "immobilise" and "immobiliser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "immobilise vs immobilité". 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 #22,137 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.