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 eye mixes muscle and mutilé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. muscle (CVCCCV) and mutilé (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between muscle and mutilé
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
- muscle ← mmuscle · msucle · mucsle · musccle · muscel · musclle · muslce · musscle
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "muscle" and "mutilé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "muscle" or "mutilé" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "muscle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mutilé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #247,696 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "muscle" and "mutilé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mutilé vs mutins". 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 #247,696 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.