justifievsjustifiéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,107
“justifie” frequency rank
#12,605
“justifiée” frequency rank
18712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature justifie justifiée
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de justifier. Participe passé féminin singulier de justifier.

Where the eye mixes justifie and justifiée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. justifie runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against justifiée's 9 (CVCCVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
justifie
9 ch
justifiée

Visual trap between justifie and justifiée

A purely visual mix-up. justifie (\ʒys.ti.fi\) and justifiée (\ʒys.ti.fje\) 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 18712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

justifie is recorded at frequency rank #6,107, classified as averb, pronounced \ʒys.ti.fi\. justifiée is at rank #12,605, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʒys.ti.fje\.

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 18712, this pair ranks #376,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of justifie vs justifiée

Shared letters: efijstu. Private to "justifie": -. Private to "justifiée": é.

"justifie" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "justifiée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • justifie ← jjustifie · jsutifie · jusitfie · jusstifie · justfiie · justifei · justiffie · justiife

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "justifie" for "justifiée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒys.ti.fi\ versus \ʒys.ti.fje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "justifie" or "justifiée" show up more?
"justifie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,107 in our French list, against #12,605 for "justifiée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "justifie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "justifiée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,939 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "justifie" and "justifiée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "justifiée vs justifiez". 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 #376,939 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