applisvsappuiConfusable pair

Which to use

“applis” and “appui” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,871
“applis” frequency rank
#2,755
“appui” frequency rank
20626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature applis appui
Definition Pluriel de appli. Ce qui sert à soutenir une chose ou une personne pour l’empêcher de tomber, de chanceler, etc.

Where the eye mixes applis and appui

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
applis
5 ch
appui

Visual trap between applis and appui

A purely visual mix-up. applis (\a.pli\) and appui (\a.pɥi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

applis is recorded at frequency rank #17,871, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pli\. appui is at rank #2,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pɥi\.

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 20626, this pair ranks #367,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of applis vs appui

Shared letters: aip. Private to "applis": ls. Private to "appui": u.

"applis" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC  ·  "appui" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • applisaplis · aplpis · appils · appliss · appllis · applsi · paplis
  • appuiappiu · apui · apupi · papui

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "applis" for "appui" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.pli\ versus \a.pɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "applis" or "appui"?
"appui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,755 in our French list, against #17,871 for "applis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "applis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "appui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "applis" and "appui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appâts vs applis". 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 #367,325 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