ill
\ˈɪl\
The verdict
“ill” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #15,649) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #15,649
- frequency rank, French
- 3,561
- “I” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Malade, malsain.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ill · ill · French
ill · rank #15,649 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #15,649
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,561
- PHOTO-FINISH idéologiques
Nearest frequency peer: idéologiques (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “ill”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- hémorragie
hémorragie
84,355 corpus weight
- idoles
idoles
84,354 corpus weight
- idéologiques
idéologiques
84,353 corpus weight
- ill
ill
84,352 corpus weight
- illicite
illicite
84,351 corpus weight
- imprimée
imprimée
84,350 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “ill” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | ill |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ˈɪl\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #15,649 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “ill” se place dans la fréquence du français
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ill is neighbouring look-alikes ("it", "IP", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \ˈɪl\. Frequency #15,649 among 3,561 “I” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
ill has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "it", "IP", "ix", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ill, spelled I-L-L.
Definition
- 1Malade, malsain.
- 2Cool.
Synonyms
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ill", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "ill". Here's where to go from here.
- "ill" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "it". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #15,649 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "I" letter cohort. I–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.