houille

^((h aspiré))\uj\

/^((h aspiré))\uj\/ noun

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

The verdict

“houille” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #30,205. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#30,205
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Charbons fossiles appelés communément charbons de terre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-houille · houille · French

houille · rank #30,205 · 7 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #30,205
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH honorables

Nearest frequency peer: honorables (-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 « houille »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « houille » 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).

houille vs huile
71% similar
houille vs houle
71% similar
houille vs houiller
88% similar

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

Key facts for houille
PropertyValue
Headwordhouille
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h aspiré))\uj\
Letters7
Frequency rank#30,205
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « houille »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « honorables » (#30,204), « hume » (#30,206), « honey » (#30,203). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « houille » est au #30,205. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around houille (IPA ^((h aspiré))\uj\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #30,205 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for houille, with forms such as "hhouille", "hoiulle", and "houile". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "huile", "houle", "houiller", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is houille, spelled H-O-U-I-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Charbons fossiles appelés communément charbons de terre.
  2. 2
    Associée à une couleur : Différentes forces naturelles propres à se transformer en énergie industrielle.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. D’ailleurs, Bakou possède des quartiers, qui sont bien russes de mœurs et d’aspect, […], et au bout de ces rues, un port moderne, dont l’atmosphère s’encrasse des fumées de la houille, vomies par la cheminée des steamers.
  2. C’est vers le milieu du XIᵉ siècle que parait avoir été établie la première exploitation de la houille dans les environs de Newcastle en Angleterre, du moins en ce qui concerne l’Europe, car, d’après les récits des missionnaires, les Chinois se seraient servis de ce combustible bien avant notre ère.

This word in other languages

coal(English)hulla(Español)Steinkohle(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hhouille
  • hoiulle
  • houile
  • houilel
  • houlile
  • huoille
  • ohuille

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

hhouille1hoiulle2houile1houilel2houlile2huoille2ohuille2
Edit distance from "houille"

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 "houille"?
"houille" is spelled H-O-U-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h aspiré))\uj\.
What does "houille" mean?
As a noun, "houille" means: Charbons fossiles appelés communément charbons de terre.
What words are commonly confused with "houille"?
"houille" is commonly confused with "huile", "houle", "houiller". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "houille"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "houille" is ^((h aspiré))\uj\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "houille" come from?
"houille" 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 "houille", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

héritée#30,209grincer#30,191gravity#30,189granges#30,187

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

honey7 variantsgrove7 variantsgossip7 variantslagune7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list