bille

\bij\

/\bij\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bille” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #18,664) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#18,664
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tronc d’arbre brut, simplement débarrassé de ses branches pour être envoyé à la scierie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bille · bille · French

bille · rank #18,664 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #18,664
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bilans

Nearest frequency peer: bilans (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bille »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bille » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bille vs blé
40% similar
bille vs bite
60% similar
bille vs blue
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bille
PropertyValue
Headwordbille
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bij\
Letters5
Frequency rank#18,664
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bille »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).billese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « bilans » (#18,663), « blasphème » (#18,665), « batte » (#18,662). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bille » est au #18,664. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bille is neighbouring look-alikes ("blé", "bite", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \bij\. Frequency #18,664 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bille, with forms such as "bbille", "bilel", and "blile". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "blé", "bite", "blue", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is bille, spelled B-I-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tronc d’arbre brut, simplement débarrassé de ses branches pour être envoyé à la scierie.
  2. 2
    Traverse de chemin de fer.
  3. 3
    Pièce de bois de 5m 40 destinée à être coupée en deux pour faire deux traverses.
  4. 4
    Rejeton qui pousse au pied d'un arbre.
  5. 5
    Bâton dont les mégissiers se servent pour tordre les peaux, et les teinturiers pour tordre les tissus.
  6. 6
    Bâton dont les emballeurs se servaient autrefois pour tendre les cordes des colis.
  7. 7
    Rouleau à pâtisserie.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La mère surveillait la cuisson de la soupe ; sur des papiers bleus, étalés sur une bille de chêne, étaient rangés des morceaux de saindoux et d’énormes tranches de lard.
  2. Il allait atteindre le milieu du bassin, lorsqu’une masse d’os, lourde comme une bille de chêne vert, lui tomba, du haut d’un arbre, entre les deux épaules, et le fit plonger jusqu’au fond du bassin.

Synonyms

bille de boisgrumetordoir

This word in other languages

block(English)tronco(Español)Klotz(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • bbille
  • bilel
  • blile
  • iblle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bille - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

bbille1bilel2blile2iblle2
Edit distance from "bille"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bille"?
"bille" is spelled B-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \bij\.
What does "bille" mean?
As a noun, "bille" means: Tronc d’arbre brut, simplement débarrassé de ses branches pour être envoyé à la scierie.
What words are commonly confused with "bille"?
"bille" is commonly confused with "blé", "bite", "blue". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bille"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bille" is \bij\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bille" come from?
"bille" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bille", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

batte#18,662autos#18,656clore#18,684agace#18,638

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list