bouillivsbouillieWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bouilli is a adjective, bouillie is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#43,301
“bouilli” frequency rank
#19,459
“bouillie” frequency rank
62760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bouilli bouillie
Definition Qu’on a fait bouillir. Sorte d’aliment qui est fait de lait ou d’un autre liquide et de farine bouillis ensemble jusqu’à une certaine consistance et qu’on donne ordinairement aux petits enfants.

Same sound, different letters: bouilli vs bouillie

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. bouilli runs 7 letters (CVVVCCV) against bouillie's 8 (CVVVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
bouilli
8 ch
bouillie

Same sound, different spelling - bouilli / bouillie

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bouilli and bouillie carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bu.ji\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bouilli” sits inside “bouillie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bouilli is recorded at frequency rank #43,301, classified as anadj, pronounced \bu.ji\. bouillie is at rank #19,459, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bu.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 62760, this pair ranks #85,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bouilli vs bouillie

Shared letters: bilou. Private to "bouilli": -. Private to "bouillie": e.

"bouilli" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV  ·  "bouillie" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bouilli ← bbouilli · boiulli · bouili · bouilil · boulili · buoilli · obuilli
  • bouillie ← bbouillie · boiullie · bouilie · bouilile · bouillei · boulilie · buoillie · obuillie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bouilli" and "bouillie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bouilli" is an adjective and "bouillie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bouilli" or "bouillie"?
"bouillie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,459 in our French list, against #43,301 for "bouilli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"bouilli" and "bouillie" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bouilli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bouillie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bouilli" and "bouillie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bouille 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 #85,435 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