baillevsbailliTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,665
“baille” frequency rank
#25,214
“bailli” frequency rank
63879
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature baille bailli
Definition Demi-futaille à un seul fond, en forme de baquet, qui sert à divers usages. 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 baille and bailli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
baille
6 ch
bailli

Visual trap between baille and bailli

A purely visual mix-up. baille (\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 a single letter - e in “baille” becomes i in “bailli”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63879, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

baille is recorded at frequency rank #38,665, 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 63879, this pair ranks #79,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of baille vs bailli

Shared letters: abil. Private to "baille": e. Private to "bailli": -.

"baille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "bailli" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bailleabille · baile · bailel · balile · bbaille · bialle
  • bailliabilli · baili · bailil · balili · bbailli · bialli

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "baille" and "bailli" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\baj\ versus \ba.ji\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "baille" vs "bailli" - which ranks higher?
"bailli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,214 in our French list, against #38,665 for "baille". 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 "baille" 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 #79,762 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "baille" and "bailli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baille vs brailler". 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 #79,762 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