Which to use
“intimité” and “inutilité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,452
- “intimité” frequency rank
- #28,610
- “inutilité” frequency rank
- 36062
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intimité | inutilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qualité de ce qui est intime, a vocation à rester privé et protégé des atteintes extérieures. | Défaut d’utilité. |
Where the eye mixes intimité and inutilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. intimité runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against inutilité's 9 (VCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between intimité and inutilité
A purely visual mix-up. intimité (\ɛ̃.ti.mi.te\) and inutilité (\i.ny.ti.li.te\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intimité is recorded at frequency rank #7,452, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.ti.mi.te\. inutilité is at rank #28,610, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.ny.ti.li.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 36062, this pair ranks #272,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of intimité vs inutilité
Shared letters: inté. Private to "intimité": m. Private to "inutilité": lu.
"intimité" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV · "inutilité" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "intimité" and "inutilité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "intimité" or "inutilité" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "intimité" and "inutilité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "intimité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inutilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #272,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intimité" and "inutilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inimitié vs intimité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #272,267 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.