faille

\faj\

/\faj\/ noun

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

The verdict

“faille” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #6,087. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#6,087
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure.

Corpus desk

Index FR-faille · faille · French

faille · rank #6,087 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #6,087
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH faciles

Nearest frequency peer: faciles (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « faille »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « faille » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

faille vs file
67% similar
faille vs Fall
50% similar
faille vs fill
67% similar

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

Key facts for faille
PropertyValue
Headwordfaille
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\faj\
Letters6
Frequency rank#6,087
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « faille »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).faillese 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 « faciles » (#6,086), « faune » (#6,088), « fabriquer » (#6,085). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « faille » est au #6,087. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around faille (IPA \faj\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,087 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for faille, with forms such as "afille", "faile", and "failel". 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, "file", "Fall", "fill", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is faille, spelled F-A-I-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure.
  2. 2
    Défaut, faiblesse.
  3. 3
    Point faible qui permet une attaque.
  4. 4
    Faiblesse dans un système informatique permettant à un attaquant de porter atteinte à l’intégrité de ce système.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Certains minéraux peuvent cristalliser entre les fragments des roches brisées dans les zones de failles.
  2. La faille de San Andreas traverse la Californie.

This word in other languages

fault(English)falla(Español)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • afille
  • faile
  • failel
  • falile
  • ffaille
  • fialle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

afille2faile1failel2falile2ffaille1fialle2
Edit distance from "faille"

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 "faille"?
"faille" is spelled F-A-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \faj\.
What does "faille" mean?
As a noun, "faille" means: Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure.
What words are commonly confused with "faille"?
"faille" is commonly confused with "file", "Fall", "fill". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "faille"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "faille" is \faj\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "faille" come from?
"faille" 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 "faille", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

confie#6,066litres#6,108marbre#6,109chaine#6,060

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

faune6 variantsfred6 variantshôte6 variantscoton6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list