filou
\fi.lu\
The verdict
“filou” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #43,438. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #43,438
- frequency rank, French
- 3,276
- “F” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - (Louisiane) Voleur agissant par ruse, tricheur au jeu, personne qui abuse de la confiance.
Corpus desk
Index FR-filou · filou · French
filou · rank #43,438 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #43,438
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,276
- PHOTO-FINISH Filip
Nearest frequency peer: Filip (-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 « filou »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- FFR
FFR
56,566 corpus weight
- fichage
fichage
56,565 corpus weight
- Filip
Filip
56,564 corpus weight
- filou
filou
56,563 corpus weight
- filtrant
filtrant
56,562 corpus weight
- fixement
fixement
56,561 corpus weight
What this shows « filou » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
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 | filou |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fi.lu\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,438 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « filou »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around filou (IPA \fi.lu\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #43,438 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for filou, with forms such as "ffilou", "fillou", and "filuo". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fou", "fils", "flou", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is filou, spelled F-I-L-O-U.
Definition
- 1(Louisiane) Voleur agissant par ruse, tricheur au jeu, personne qui abuse de la confiance.
- 2Personne malhonnête.
- 3Personnage espiègle ou coquin.
- 4Personne maline, rusée, astucieuse.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how filou appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je souffre de me voir accablé d’éloges que je ne mérite pas, on me prend pour un fort, je ne suis qu’un simple filou. Je vole à droite, à gauche, je ramasse des rejets au coin des livres.
Les filous à Paris sont d'une dextérité sans égale, mais ils emploient leur adresse à vider les poches et non pas à les emplir.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ffilou
- fillou
- filuo
- fliou
- iflou
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of filou - 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 "filou"?
What does "filou" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "filou"?
How do you pronounce "filou"?
What language does "filou" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "filou", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).