poils

\pwal\

/\pwal\/ noun

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

The verdict

“poils” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,692. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,692
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pluriel de poil.

Corpus desk

Index FR-poils · poils · French

poils · rank #5,692 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,692
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Pizza

Nearest frequency peer: Pizza (-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 « poils »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « poils » 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).

poils vs pol
60% similar
poils vs POS
0% similar
poils vs puis
60% similar

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

Key facts for poils
PropertyValue
Headwordpoils
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pwal\
Letters5
Frequency rank#5,692
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « poils »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.poilsse 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 « Pizza » (#5,691), « polonais » (#5,693), « phénomènes » (#5,690). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « poils » est au #5,692. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around poils (IPA \pwal\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,692 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Pluriel de poil.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for poils, with forms such as "opils", "piols", and "poills". 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, "pol", "POS", "puis", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is poils, spelled P-O-I-L-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pluriel de poil.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Les Angiospermes ont des modes de dissémination très variés : si nous songeons aux arbres d’abord, nous trouvons les graines légères des Peupliers que le vent transporte au loin grâce à leurs houppes de poils.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • opils
  • piols
  • poills
  • poilss
  • poisl
  • ppoils

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of poils - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

opils2piols2poills1poilss1poisl2ppoils1
Edit distance from "poils"

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 "poils"?
"poils" is spelled P-O-I-L-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pwal\.
What does "poils" mean?
As a noun, "poils" means: Pluriel de poil.
What words are commonly confused with "poils"?
"poils" is commonly confused with "pol", "POS", "puis". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "poils"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "poils" is \pwal\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "poils" come from?
"poils" 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 "poils", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Pizza#5,691pacte#5,687Miami#5,676Laura#5,671

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

pâte6 variantstend6 variantsdeuil6 variantsdits6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list