Which to use
“facile” is an adjective and “faille” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #654
- “facile” frequency rank
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- 6741
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | facile | faille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se fait sans peine. | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. |
Where the eye mixes facile and faille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: facile is \fa.sil\ while faille is \faj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
facile is recorded at frequency rank #654, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.sil\. faille is at rank #6,087, tagged as anoun, pronounced \faj\.
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 6741, this pair ranks #425,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of facile vs faille
Shared letters: aefil. Private to "facile": c. Private to "faille": -.
"facile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "facile" and "faille" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "facile" or "faille"?
What to do next
You've compared "facile" and "faille". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "facile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "facile" and "faille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "facile vs faufile". 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.