filleul
\fi.jœl\
The verdict
“filleul” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #30,609. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #30,609
- frequency rank, French
- 137,178
- “F” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fils spirituel d’un parrain ou d’une marraine; enfant pour lequel une cérémonie de parrainage a eu lieu.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | filleul |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fi.jœl\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #30,609 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “filleul” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around filleul (IPA \fi.jœl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #30,609 among 137,178 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for filleul, with forms such as "ffilleul", "filelul", and "fileul". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "filleule", "fille", "filles", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology 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 filleul, spelled F-I-L-L-E-U-L.
Definition
- 1Fils spirituel d’un parrain ou d’une marraine; enfant pour lequel une cérémonie de parrainage a eu lieu.
- 2Celui qui bénéficie d’une protection spéciale.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ffilleul
- filelul
- fileul
- fillelu
- filleull
- filluel
- flileul
- iflleul
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of filleul - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "filleul"?
What does "filleul" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "filleul"?
How do you pronounce "filleul"?
What language does "filleul" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “filleul”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is F-I-L-L-E-U-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \fi.jœl\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “filleule” - see the side-by-side comparison. filleul vs filleule
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Same frequency band
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.