pile-poil
\pil.pwal\
The verdict
“pile-poil” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Juste au bon moment.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pile-poil · pile-poil · French
pile-poil · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pile-poil |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \pil.pwal\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pile-poil » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pile-poil is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \pil.pwal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
pile-poil doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is pile-poil, spelled P-I-L-E---P-O-I-L.
Definition
- 1Juste au bon moment.
- 2Précisément, très exactement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pile-poil appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Et voilà que la perfide Albion pourrait nous empêcher de « draguer » la coquille au large de ses côtes, pile-poil alors que la récolte s’annonce « exceptionnelle » : jamais les cales de nos 200 coquilliers n’ont été aussi pleines.
Tu arrives pile-poil, j’allais partir.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.