Which to use
“bail” and “bailli” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,467
- “bail” frequency rank
- #25,214
- “bailli” frequency rank
- 29681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bail | bailli |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contrat par lequel on donne à quelqu’un la jouissance d’une chose, moyennant un prix convenu et pour un temps déterminé. | Officier royal ou seigneurial, au nom duquel la justice se rendait dans l’étendue d’une certaine juridiction (baillie) où il exerce par délégation un pouvoir administratif et militaire, et surtout des attributions judiciaires. |
Where the eye mixes bail and bailli
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bail with bailli
A purely visual mix-up. bail (\baj\) and bailli (\ba.ji\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “bail” sits inside “bailli”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bail is recorded at frequency rank #4,467, classified as anoun, pronounced \baj\. bailli is at rank #25,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.ji\.
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 29681, this pair ranks #315,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bail vs bailli
Shared letters: abil. Private to "bail": -. Private to "bailli": -.
"bail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bailli" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bail" and "bailli" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bail" or "bailli"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bail" and "bailli" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bailli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #315,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bail" and "bailli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bailli vs bouilli". 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 #315,146 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.