poil

/\pwal\/ noun

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,432

in French word usage

Misspellings

4

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

poil is aFrenchnoun. It means: Filet délié qui croît sur la peau de la plupart des mammifères et à certains endroits du corps humain. Pronounced \pwal\. It ranks #4,432 in French word frequency. Often confused with pop and pot.

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

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for poil is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pwal\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,432 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for poil, with forms such as "opil", "piol", and "poill". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.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 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 poil, spelled P-O-I-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: opil,piol,poill,ppoil

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for poil

Misspelling Variants of "poil"

opil4piol4poill5ppoil5
Misspelling Variants of "poil"

Frequency rank: #4,432 in French

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. 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 P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

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.