aiglesvsailéConfusable pair

Quick tell: aigles is a noun, ailé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aigles” is a noun and “ailé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,798
“aigles” frequency rank
#38,126
“ailé” frequency rank
54924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aigles ailé
Definition Pluriel de aigle. Qui possède des ailes.

Where the eye mixes aigles and ailé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. aigles runs 6 letters (VVCCVC) against ailé's 4 (VVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aigles
4 ch
ailé

Why the eye confuses aigles with ailé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aigles is \ɛɡl\ while ailé is \ɛ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aigles is recorded at frequency rank #16,798, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡl\. ailé is at rank #38,126, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.le\.

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 54924, this pair ranks #130,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aigles vs ailé

Shared letters: ail. Private to "aigles": egs. Private to "ailé": é.

"aigles" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "ailé" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aigles ← aigels · aiggles · aigless · aiglles · aiglse · ailges · iagles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aigles" for "ailé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aigles" is a noun and "ailé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "aigles" or "ailé" show up more?
"aigles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,798 in our French list, against #38,126 for "ailé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aigles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ailé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aigles" and "ailé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ailé vs Aure". 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 #130,775 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