billevsbiteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,664
“bille” frequency rank
#4,312
“bite” frequency rank
22976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bille bite
Definition Tronc d’arbre brut, simplement débarrassé de ses branches pour être envoyé à la scierie. Pénis ; verge.

Where the eye mixes bille and bite

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

5 ch
bille
4 ch
bite

Why the eye confuses bille with bite

A purely visual mix-up. bille (\bij\) and bite (\bit\) 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 22976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bille is recorded at frequency rank #18,664, classified as anoun, pronounced \bij\. bite is at rank #4,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bit\.

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 22976, this pair ranks #355,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bille vs bite

Shared letters: bei. Private to "bille": l. Private to "bite": t.

"bille" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • billebbille · bilel · blile · iblle
  • bitebbite · biet · bitte · btie · ibte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bille" and "bite" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bij\ versus \bit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bille" vs "bite" - which ranks higher?
"bite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,312 in our French list, against #18,664 for "bille". 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 "bille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bille" and "bite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bie vs bille". 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 #355,058 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