poil

\pwal\

/\pwal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“poil” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,432) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#4,432
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain.

Corpus desk

Index FR-poil · poil · French

poil · rank #4,432 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,432
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH parts

Nearest frequency peer: parts (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « poil »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « poil » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

poil vs pop
50% similar
poil vs pot
50% similar
poil vs pol
75% similar

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

Key facts for poil
PropertyValue
Headwordpoil
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pwal\
Letters4
Frequency rank#4,432
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « poil »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).poilse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « parts » (#4,431), « poutine » (#4,433), « offrent » (#4,430). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « poil » est au #4,432. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for poil is neighbouring look-alikes ("pop", "pot", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pwal\. Frequency #4,432 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 12 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for poil, with forms such as "opil", "piol", and "poill". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pop", "pot", "pol", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is poil, spelled P-O-I-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain.
  2. 2
    Tous les poils qui sont sur le corps d’un animal.
  3. 3
    La chevelure ; mais, dans cette acception, on ne l’emploie guère qu’en parlant des cheveux dont la couleur passe pour désagréable, ou est altérée par l’âge.
  4. 4
    Poil hérissé se dit des cheveux, lorsqu’ils se dressent sur la tête.
  5. 5
    La barbe de l’homme.
  6. 6
    Il se laisserait arracher la barbe poil à poil, se dit d’un poltron.
  7. 7
    En parlant de certains animaux, et surtout des chevaux, signifie couleur.
  8. 8
    Partie velue du drap et d’autres étoffes, comme le velours, la panne, etc.
  9. 9
    Certains filets très déliés, ordinairement cylindriques et flexibles, qui naissent sur les diverses parties des plantes.
  10. 10
    Remontrance ; admonestation.
  11. 11
    Pénis.
  12. 12
    Étudiant ayant passé le rite du baptême qui bizute les bleus ; équivalent masculin de la plume.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais la plus forte tête du salon jaune était à coup sûr le commandant Sicardot, le beau-père d’Aristide. Taillé en Hercule, le visage rouge brique, couturé et planté de bouquets de poil gris, il comptait parmi les plus glorieuses ganaches de la grande armée.
  2. Quant aux poils des carnivores et des rongeurs, ils fournissent à l’industrie la plus grande partie des substances employées pour faire des feutres, notamment dans la chapellerie.

Synonyms

poiluche

This word in other languages

hair(English)cabello(Español)Haar(Deutsch)cabelo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opil
  • piol
  • poill
  • ppoil

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of poil - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

opil2piol2poill1ppoil1
Edit distance from "poil"

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 "poil"?
"poil" is spelled P-O-I-L. The IPA pronunciation is \pwal\.
What does "poil" mean?
As a noun, "poil" means: Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain.
What words are commonly confused with "poil"?
"poil" is commonly confused with "pop", "pot", "pol". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "poil"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "poil" is \pwal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "poil" come from?
"poil" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "poil", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

rage#4,441clip#4,413clan#4,412aube#4,402

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list