limitéevslimiterConfusable pair

Quick tell: limitée is a adjective, limiter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“limitée” is an adjective and “limiter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,772
“limitée” frequency rank
#3,468
“limiter” frequency rank
7240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature limitée limiter
Definition Féminin singulier de limité. Servir de ligne de démarcation à un terrain ou à un pays.

Same sound, different letters: limitée vs limiter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
limitée
7 ch
limiter

Ear matches; page differs - limitée and limiter

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: limitée and limiter carry the same recorded pronunciation, \li.mi.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

limitée is recorded at frequency rank #3,772, classified as anadj, pronounced \li.mi.te\. limiter is at rank #3,468, tagged as averb, pronounced \li.mi.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 7240, this pair ranks #423,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of limitée vs limiter

Shared letters: eilmt. Private to "limitée": é. Private to "limiter": r.

"limitée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "limiter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • limiterilmiter · liimter · limietr · limiterr · limitre · limitter · limmiter · limtier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "limitée" and "limiter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "limitée" is an adjective and "limiter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "limitée" or "limiter" show up more?
"limiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,468 in our French list, against #3,772 for "limitée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "limitée" / "limiter". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "limitée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "limiter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #423,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "limitée" and "limiter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "limitée vs limitera". 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 #423,748 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