Which to use
“stérile” is an adjective and “stérilité” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,697
- “stérile” frequency rank
- #34,764
- “stérilité” frequency rank
- 48461
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stérile | stérilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui ne peut pas se reproduire, infécond. | Caractère de ce qui est stérile. |
Where the eye mixes stérile and stérilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. stérile runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against stérilité's 9 (CCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between stérile and stérilité
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stérile is \ste.ʁil\ while stérilité is \ste.ʁi.li.te\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stérile is recorded at frequency rank #13,697, classified as anadj, pronounced \ste.ʁil\. stérilité is at rank #34,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ste.ʁi.li.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 48461, this pair ranks #178,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stérile vs stérilité
Shared letters: ilrsté. Private to "stérile": e. Private to "stérilité": -.
"stérile" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "stérilité" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stérile" and "stérilité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "stérile" or "stérilité" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "stérile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stérilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stérile" and "stérilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stérilet vs stérilité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #178,734 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.