mutévsmutiléWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,292
“muté” frequency rank
#30,272
“mutilé” frequency rank
54564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muté mutilé
Definition Se dit d’un vin dont la fermentation a été stoppée par l’ajout d’alcool ou d'acide sulfureux lui permettant ainsi de garder des sucres résiduels. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe mutiler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set muté and mutilé apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
muté
6 ch
mutilé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muté is \my.te\ while mutilé is \my.ti.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54564, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muté is recorded at frequency rank #24,292, classified as anadj, pronounced \my.te\. 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 54564, this pair ranks #133,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of muté vs mutilé

Shared letters: mtué. Private to "muté": -. Private to "mutilé": il.

"muté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mutilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequency comparison

muté#24,292
mutilé#30,272

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "muté" and "mutilé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muté" is an adjective and "mutilé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "muté" or "mutilé"?
"muté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,292 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 muté vs mutilé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “muté”; for a verb, it's “mutilé”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “muté” 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