colle

\kɔl\

/\kɔl\/ noun

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

The verdict

“colle” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,557) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,557
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Matière adhérente qui permet de faire tenir l’un contre l’autre deux objets.

Corpus desk

Index FR-colle · colle · French

colle · rank #4,557 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,557
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH climatique

Nearest frequency peer: climatique (-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 « colle »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « colle » 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).

colle vs cool
60% similar
colle vs côte
40% similar
colle vs come
60% similar

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

Key facts for colle
PropertyValue
Headwordcolle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔl\
Letters5
Frequency rank#4,557
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « colle »

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « climatique » (#4,556), « commerciales » (#4,558), « centrales » (#4,555). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « colle » est au #4,557. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for colle is neighbouring look-alikes ("cool", "côte", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \kɔl\. Frequency #4,557 among 8,609 “C” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for colle, with forms such as "ccolle", "clole", and "colel". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cool", "côte", "come", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is colle, spelled C-O-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Matière adhérente qui permet de faire tenir l’un contre l’autre deux objets.
  2. 2
    Examen oral en école préparatoire → voir khôlle.
  3. 3
    Question difficile, question dont on connaît la réponse pour tester les connaissances de quelqu’un.
  4. 4
    Retenue, punition au collège ou en lycée qui consiste à retenir l'élève après la fin des horaires de cours normaux, le jour même ou un autre jour.
  5. 5
    Mensonge, prétexte, fausse excuse.
  6. 6
    Groupe de vendangeurs.
  7. 7
    Substance protéique utilisé pour clarifier le vin, la bière ou autres liquides, par coagulation des impuretés.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les colleurs d’affiches après avoir enduit de colle très liquide le panneau d’affichage appliquent leur papier en le noyant littéralement de colle pour que l'allongement soit rapide et le glissement facile.
  2. Il était travesti en Charlot et tenait à la main une petite moustache noire qu’il enduisait de colle.

Synonyms

adhésifgluseccotinesécotine

This word in other languages

glue(English)cola(Español)Klebstoff(Deutsch)cola(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccolle
  • clole
  • colel
  • oclle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of colle - 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.

ccolle1clole2colel2oclle2
Edit distance from "colle"

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 "colle"?
"colle" is spelled C-O-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔl\.
What does "colle" mean?
As a noun, "colle" means: Matière adhérente qui permet de faire tenir l’un contre l’autre deux objets.
What words are commonly confused with "colle"?
"colle" is commonly confused with "cool", "côte", "come". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "colle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "colle" is \kɔl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "colle" come from?
"colle" 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 "colle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

baise#4,549durer#4,566décor#4,567veste#4,536

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list