utilisévsutilitéTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,049
“utilisé” frequency rank
#4,453
“utilité” frequency rank
5502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature utilisé utilité
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de utiliser. Aptitude d’une chose, d’une action ou d’une connaissance à répondre à un besoin ou à procurer un avantage.

Where the eye mixes utilisé and utilité

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

7 ch
utilisé
7 ch
utilité

Visual trap between utilisé and utilité

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: utilisé is \y.ti.li.ze\ while utilité is \y.ti.li.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “utilisé” becomes t in “utilité”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

utilisé is recorded at frequency rank #1,049, classified as averb, pronounced \y.ti.li.ze\. utilité is at rank #4,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced \y.ti.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 5502, this pair ranks #428,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of utilisé vs utilité

Shared letters: iltué. Private to "utilisé": s. Private to "utilité": -.

"utilisé" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "utilité" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "utilisé" and "utilité" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "utilisé" is a verb and "utilité" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "utilisé" or "utilité" show up more?
"utilisé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,049 in our French list, against #4,453 for "utilité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "utilisé" and "utilité" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "utilisé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "utilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,836 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "utilisé" and "utilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "utilisa vs utilité". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #428,836 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