invitationsvsirritationsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“invitations” and “irritations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,162
“invitations” frequency rank
#49,168
“irritations” frequency rank
65330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature invitations irritations
Definition Pluriel de invitation. Pluriel de irritation.

Where the eye mixes invitations and irritations

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. invitations and irritations follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
invitations
11 ch
irritations

Look-alike desk: invitations vs irritations

A purely visual mix-up. invitations (\ɛ̃.vi.ta.sjɔ̃\) and irritations (\i.ʁi.ta.sjɔ̃\) 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 65330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

invitations is recorded at frequency rank #16,162, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.vi.ta.sjɔ̃\. irritations is at rank #49,168, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.ʁi.ta.sjɔ̃\.

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 65330, this pair ranks #72,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of invitations vs irritations

Shared letters: ainost. Private to "invitations": v. Private to "irritations": r.

"invitations" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC  ·  "irritations" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • invitations ← inivtations · innvitations · inviattions · invitaitons · invitatinos · invitationns · invitationss · invitatiosn
  • irritations ← irirtations · iritations · irriattions · irritaitons · irritatinos · irritationns · irritationss · irritatiosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "invitations" for "irritations" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.vi.ta.sjɔ̃\ versus \i.ʁi.ta.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "invitations" or "irritations" show up more?
"invitations" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,162 in our French list, against #49,168 for "irritations". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "invitations" and "irritations" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "invitations" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "irritations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "invitations" and "irritations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imitations vs irritations". 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 #72,858 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list