Which to use
“faille” and “faillite” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- #5,558
- “faillite” frequency rank
- 11645
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faille | faillite |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. | Banqueroute forcée d’un négociant, obligation pour lui de suspendre ses paiements. |
Where the eye mixes faille and faillite
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses faille with faillite
A purely visual mix-up. faille (\faj\) and faillite (\fa.jit\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faille is recorded at frequency rank #6,087, classified as anoun, pronounced \faj\. faillite is at rank #5,558, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.jit\.
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 11645, this pair ranks #408,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faille vs faillite
Shared letters: aefil. Private to "faille": -. Private to "faillite": t.
"faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "faillite" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faille" for "faillite" ever safe?
Frequency check: "faille" vs "faillite" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faillite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #408,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faille" and "faillite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faille vs fill". 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 #408,366 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.