AdèlevsADSLWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Adèle is a name, ADSL is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Adèle” is a name and “ADSL” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,512
“Adèle” frequency rank
#20,909
“ADSL” frequency rank
33421
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Adèle ADSL
Definition Prénom féminin français. Technologie de communication haut débit permettant d’utiliser les lignes téléphoniques déjà existantes afin d’accéder à Internet et d’autres services.

Where the eye mixes Adèle and ADSL

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Adèle
4 ch
ADSL

Why the eye confuses Adèle with ADSL

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Adèle is \a.dɛl\ while ADSL is \a.de.ɛs.ɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Adèle is recorded at frequency rank #12,512, classified as aname, pronounced \a.dɛl\. ADSL is at rank #20,909, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.de.ɛs.ɛl\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 33421, this pair ranks #290,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Adèle vs ADSL

Shared letters: adl. Private to "Adèle": . Private to "ADSL": s.

"Adèle" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ADSL" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ADSLaddsl · adls · adsll · adssl · asdl · dasl

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Adèle" and "ADSL" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Adèle" is a name and "ADSL" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Adèle" or "ADSL"?
"Adèle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,512 in our French list, against #20,909 for "ADSL". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Adèle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ADSL" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Adèle" and "ADSL" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ADSL vs aol". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #290,768 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list