folie

/\fɔ.li\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,197

in French word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

folie is aFrenchnoun. It means: Dérangement de l’esprit, accès de folie. Pronounced \fɔ.li\. It ranks #3,197 in French word frequency. Often confused with folk and foll.

Key facts for folie
PropertyValue
Headwordfolie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fɔ.li\
Letters5
Frequency rank#3,197
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of folie in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for folie is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fɔ.li\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,197 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for folie, with forms such as "ffolie", "floie", and "foile". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "folk", "foll", "forme", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is folie, spelled F-O-L-I-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dérangement de l’esprit, accès de folie.
  2. 2
    Lésion plus ou moins complète et ordinairement de longue durée des facultés intellectuelles et affectives, sans trouble notable dans les sensations et les mouvements volontaires, et sans désordre grave ou même apparent des fonctions nutritives et génératrices.
  3. 3
    Absence de raison, extravagance, manque de jugement.
  4. 4
    Action folle, idée folle.
  5. 5
    Gaieté vive dans laquelle on fait ou dit des choses propres à divertir.
  6. 6
    La Folie, personnage fictif qu’on représente sous la figure d’une femme joyeuse avec une marotte et des grelots.
  7. 7
    Joyeusetés en paroles ou en actions.
  8. 8
    Caricature, charge plaisante.
  9. 9
    Goût exclusif, passionné, idée en laquelle on se complaît.
  10. 10
    Accointance charnelle.
  11. 11
    En chaleur, en parlant des animaux.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ffolie,floie,foile,folei,follie,oflie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for folie

Misspelling Variants of "folie"

ffolie6floie5foile5folei5follie6oflie5
Misspelling Variants of "folie"

Frequency rank: #3,197 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "folie"?
"folie" is spelled F-O-L-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ.li\.
What does "folie" mean?
As a noun, "folie" means: Dérangement de l’esprit, accès de folie.
What words are commonly confused with "folie"?
"folie" is commonly confused with "folk", "foll", "forme". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "folie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "folie" is \fɔ.li\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "folie" come from?
"folie" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter F in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.