Which to use
“faille” and “faîte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,087
- “faille” frequency rank
- #31,026
- “faîte” frequency rank
- 37113
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faille | faîte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fracture, fissure avec rejet des deux blocs situés de part et d’autre de la cassure. | Comble, partie la plus élevée d’un bâtiment, d’un édifice. |
Where the eye mixes faille and faîte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: faille vs faîte
A purely visual mix-up. faille (\faj\) and faîte (\fɛt\) 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 37113, 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\. faîte is at rank #31,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\.
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 37113, this pair ranks #264,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of faille vs faîte
Shared letters: aef. Private to "faille": il. Private to "faîte": tî.
"faille" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "faîte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- faille ← afille · faile · failel · falile · ffaille · fialle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faille" for "faîte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "faille" or "faîte"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "faille" and "faîte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "faille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "faîte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #264,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faille" and "faîte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faîte vs fange". 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 #264,812 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.