utilisées vs utiliser, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#4,298
“utilisées” frequency rank: #763
“utiliser” frequency rank: 5061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	utilisées	utiliser
Definition	Participe passé féminin pluriel de utiliser.	Tirer de l’utilité de ; tirer parti de.

Same sound, different letters: utilisées vs utiliser

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. utilisées runs 9 letters (VCVCVCVVC) against utiliser's 8 (VCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch

utilisées

8 ch

utiliser

Same sound, different spelling - utilisées / utiliser

This is the hard kind. utilisées and utiliser are pronounced identically (\y.ti.li.ze\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

utilisées is recorded at frequency rank #4,298, classified as averb, pronounced \y.ti.li.ze\. 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 5061, this pair ranks #430,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of utilisées vs utiliser

Shared letters: eilstu. Private to "utilisées": é. Private to "utiliser": r.

"utilisées" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVVC · "utiliser" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

utiliser ← tuiliser · uitliser · utiilser · utiliesr · utiliserr · utilisre · utilisser · utilliser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "utilisées" for "utiliser" ever safe?

No. They are pronounced the same (\y.ti.li.ze\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "utilisées" or "utiliser"?

"utiliser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #763 in our French list, against #4,298 for "utilisées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "utilisées" / "utiliser". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "utilisées" 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 #430,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"utilisées" and "utiliser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "utilisées vs utiliserez". 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 #430,018 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.