utilisavsutiliserConfusable pair

Which to use

“utilisa” and “utiliser” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,068
“utilisa” frequency rank
#763
“utiliser” frequency rank
40831
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature utilisa utiliser
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de utiliser. Tirer de l’utilité de ; tirer parti de.

Where the eye mixes utilisa and utiliser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
utilisa
8 ch
utiliser

Visual trap between utilisa and utiliser

A purely visual mix-up. utilisa (\y.ti.li.za\) and utiliser (\y.ti.li.ze\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40831, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

utilisa is recorded at frequency rank #40,068, classified as averb, pronounced \y.ti.li.za\. utiliser is at rank #763, tagged as averb, pronounced \y.ti.li.ze\.

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 40831, this pair ranks #237,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of utilisa vs utiliser

Shared letters: ilstu. Private to "utilisa": a. Private to "utiliser": er.

"utilisa" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "utiliser" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • utilisatuilisa · uitlisa · utiilsa · utilias · utilissa · utillisa · utilsia · utliisa
  • utilisertuiliser · uitliser · utiilser · utiliesr · utiliserr · utilisre · utilisser · utilliser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "utilisa" for "utiliser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\y.ti.li.za\ versus \y.ti.li.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "utilisa" vs "utiliser" - which ranks higher?
"utiliser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #763 in our French list, against #40,068 for "utilisa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "utilisa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "utiliser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "utilisa" and "utiliser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "utilisa vs utilisais". 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 #237,555 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