Which to use
“volatile” and “volatilité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,852
- “volatile” frequency rank
- #26,925
- “volatilité” frequency rank
- 52777
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | volatile | volatilité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Animal capable de voler. | Caractère de ce qui est volatil. |
Where the eye mixes volatile and volatilité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. volatile runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against volatilité's 10 (CVCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses volatile with volatilité
A purely visual mix-up. volatile (\vɔ.la.til\) and volatilité (\vɔ.la.ti.li.te\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
volatile is recorded at frequency rank #25,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.la.til\. volatilité is at rank #26,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔ.la.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 52777, this pair ranks #145,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of volatile vs volatilité
Shared letters: ailotv. Private to "volatile": e. Private to "volatilité": é.
"volatile" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "volatilité" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- volatile ← ovlatile · vloatile · voaltile · volaitle · volatiel · volatille · volatlie · volattile
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "volatile" for "volatilité" ever safe?
Frequency check: "volatile" vs "volatilité" - which ranks higher?
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 "volatile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "volatilité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "volatile" and "volatilité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "volatil vs volatile". 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 #145,374 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.