musclevsmutiléWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: muscle is a noun, mutilé is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“muscle” is a noun and “mutilé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,201
“muscle” frequency rank
#30,272
“mutilé” frequency rank
39473
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muscle mutilé
Definition Organe contractile assurant le mouvement, chez les animaux, dont l’être humain. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe mutiler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set muscle and mutilé apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
muscle
6 ch
mutilé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muscle is \myskl\ while mutilé is \my.ti.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muscle is recorded at frequency rank #9,201, classified as anoun, pronounced \myskl\. mutilé is at rank #30,272, tagged as averb, pronounced \my.ti.le\.

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 39473, this pair ranks #247,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of muscle vs mutilé

Shared letters: lmu. Private to "muscle": ces. Private to "mutilé": ité.

"muscle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "mutilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • musclemmuscle · msucle · mucsle · musccle · muscel · musclle · muslce · musscle

Frequency comparison

muscle#9,201
mutilé#30,272

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "muscle" and "mutilé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muscle" is a noun and "mutilé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "muscle" or "mutilé"?
"muscle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,201 in our French list, against #30,272 for "mutilé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering muscle vs mutilé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “muscle”; for a verb, it's “mutilé”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “muscle” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list