Which to use
“inactive” is an adjective and “inactivité” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,496
- “inactive” frequency rank
- #25,363
- “inactivité” frequency rank
- 68859
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | inactive | inactivité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de inactif. | Disposition à ne rien faire. |
Where the eye mixes inactive and inactivité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. inactive runs 8 letters (VCVCCVCV) against inactivité's 10 (VCVCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: inactive vs inactivité
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: inactive is \i.nak.tiv\ while inactivité is \i.nak.ti.vi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
inactive is recorded at frequency rank #43,496, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.nak.tiv\. inactivité is at rank #25,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.nak.ti.vi.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 68859, this pair ranks #57,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of inactive vs inactivité
Shared letters: acintv. Private to "inactive": e. Private to "inactivité": é.
"inactive" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV · "inactivité" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- inactive ← ianctive · inacctive · inacitve · inactiev · inactivve · inacttive · inactvie · inatcive
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "inactive" and "inactivité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "inactive" or "inactivité" show up more?
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 "inactive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inactivité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "inactive" and "inactivité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inactifs vs inactive". 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 #57,404 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.