couillevscueilleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,002
“couille” frequency rank
#42,265
“cueille” frequency rank
56267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature couille cueille
Definition Testicule. Action de cueillir.

Where the eye mixes couille and cueille

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. couille and cueille follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
couille
7 ch
cueille

Visual trap between couille and cueille

A purely visual mix-up. couille (\kuj\) and cueille (\kœj\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

couille is recorded at frequency rank #14,002, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuj\. cueille is at rank #42,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœj\.

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 56267, this pair ranks #122,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of couille vs cueille

Shared letters: ceilu. Private to "couille": o. Private to "cueille": -.

"couille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV  ·  "cueille" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • couilleccouille · coiulle · couile · couilel · coulile · cuoille · ocuille
  • cueilleccueille · ceuille · cueile · cueilel · cuelile · cuielle · uceille

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "couille" and "cueille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kuj\ versus \kœj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "couille" vs "cueille" - which ranks higher?
"couille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,002 in our French list, against #42,265 for "cueille". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "couille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cueille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "couille" and "cueille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cédille vs cueille". 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 #122,166 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